8 



the necessary expense of getting milk from that section to the 

 market. In other places where a large volume of milk ap- 

 pears for direct shipment the dealers have employed a local 

 agent to inspect and weigh the milk, bill it out and assist in 

 loading. The services of this man are a part of the necessary 

 expense in getting that milk to Boston. The charges for 

 country milk stations and agents were allowed as a deduction 

 from the price of all the milk in the zone where such stations 

 or agents existed. Under this plan, wrong in principle and 

 harmful in effect, up to April 1 the producers in a whole zone 

 are paying for the operation of the milk stations in that zone, 

 whether they have the service of such station or not, for 

 instance; in the State of Maine there may not be a single 

 milk station in the tenth zone, while in the State of New 

 York there may be a dozen, but the Maine farmers are taking 

 less for their milk to meet the expense of operating the milk 

 stations in New York. The association believes in and is 

 working toward the localization of milk station charges, in the 

 belief that the cost of operating each station should be charged 

 against the milk that passes through that station. If I could 

 have my w^ay it w^ould appear as a specific charge on every 

 milk bill. I hope the time will come when the farmers who 

 pay for these stations will realize they are paying for them 

 and want to own them. 



3. Can Service. ■ — It is a lamentable fact that if the three 

 great milk companies of New England — the Hoods, the 

 Whiting interests and Turner Center — should withdraw their 

 cans from the milk service, thousands of tons of milk would 

 perish in the country while hundreds of people in the city 

 would be going without. These concerns absolutely control the 

 only way in which this perishable commodity can be moved 

 from its source of origin to the point of consumption. Neither 

 the public nor the producer is protected under this arrange- 

 ment. The dealers might almost as well own the cars. In 

 years past one of the great wastes in the business has been 

 the loss of tinware in the country. At present prices that loss 

 has tremendously increased; no person is quite as careful of 

 some other fellow's can as he is of his own. If the farmers 

 owned or had to pay for each can they used less cans would 



