35 



the contractors or peddlei-s can buy it for. Tlie farmer no longer husks 

 his corn or threshes his grain ; everything grown is used as coarse 

 fodder. He buys his grain and concentrated feeds, which indirectly 

 helps to keep up the fertility of his farm. He has given up some of 

 his laborious tasks ; he has been foi'ced to this, but it is a luxury that 

 has to be paid for. This taking of milk, preparing it for market, mixing 

 and pasteurizing, cooling and rebottling, delivering to peddlers, collect- 

 ing bills, keeping it up to the standai'd, paying fines, keeping it cold and 

 the bacteria reduced to board of health regulations, etc., all cost money. 



For the last few years the straight price paid by milk contractors in 

 the fifth zone has been 28^ cents in winter and 2Gi in summer, amount- 

 ing to an average of 27^ cents, for the milk delivered at the railroad sta- 

 tion, which is approximately the price which the average milk producers 

 receive. This is considerably less than half, a little more than one-third, 

 for 8-quart cans which really hold 8d quarts, the railroads, milk con- 

 tractors and retailers getting all there is between that and the retail 

 price, the price which the consumer has to pay for the milk in Boston. 

 It is undoubtedly true that the milk contractors can transact their part 

 of the business far more cheaply and more successfully than any one 

 else. But there is one thing which the\^ cannot do, and that is, change 

 milk, by any process whatever, so that it will be better than or as good 

 as "just as the cow secretes it." And in the matter of keeping the milk 

 practically in this condiiioyi the farmer holds, right in his own hands, if 

 he will, a monojjoly which nobody can take from him. The public is 

 fast becoming educated to the fact that this is the only right milk. This 

 fact once established, such milk will command generally a higher price 

 at retail, and milk that has, by whatever cause, ever been in such con- 

 dition that it Jieeds pasteurizing, sterilizing, rectifying, or any other 

 doctoring, must, notwithstanding the additional cost thereby involved, 

 bring a less price. The result would seem to be that farmers producing 

 such milk must ultimately be recompensed for their efforts. 



Furthermore, if the milk produced for the Boston market could be 

 delivered at the stations in condition such as to do away with pasteuriz- 

 ing, rectifying, etc., it should so reduce the expense of handling that 

 a better allowance could be meted out to the farmers by the con- 

 tractors. An improved product also means greater consumption, hence 

 increased market. The consumer should be willing to pay a fair price 

 for clean milk. A rise of 1 cent per quart per day means f3.65 per 

 year, or fl.21 per person on the basis of two-thirds of a pint, the 

 milk consumption per capita in the large cities, as reported last year by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, or f6 per year for a family 

 of five persons. What head of a family would not give f 6 per year to 

 insure milk made under sanitary conditions? It might mean a yearly 

 sacrifice of 60 10-cent cigars, or 40 15-cent drinks of whiskey, or even 

 120 glasses of beer, or some other six-dollar sacrifice, but the saving of 

 doctor's bills and increased health of children ought to be a sufficient 

 reward. 



About the year 1814 distilleries were stai'ted in the United States, and 

 with them came the disposition of the by-product "slop" by feeding it 



