116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Mr. Sessions. There are two sides to this question, of 

 course. I am anxious to have good mill^ provided for our 

 consumption. The farmers are some of them careless, no 

 doubt, but as New England farmers they are willing to do 

 pretty nearly the fair thing ; and I believe they tell the story 

 in this way : the retail price has been raised 1 cent a quart 

 in Springfield by the leverage that has been brought to bear 

 on the matter, at a meeting of the dealers, that the State 

 Board of Health is requiring more from the farmers, feed is 

 higher, help is higher, it costs more to make milk, and the 

 farmers are desiring and demanding more for milk, and they 

 must raise the price 1 cent a quart. They raised it, and 

 they paid the farmers ^4 cent, and took the % themselves. 

 Mr. Allen, although the manager of the co-operative com- 

 pany, really represents the milk peddlers in this statement 

 here. Now, as I believe, the farmers would be willing to 

 take these greater pains and be compelled to do certain 

 things, provided the public, the peddlers, or whoever it is 

 that controls it, were willing to consider some of their efforts 

 in the money line. But, as it is, this conmumity is in the 

 grip of the peddlers, who get the % cent raise when it 

 doesn't cost them one iota more to deliver it, while the 

 farmer has to take the 1/4. I am not a farmer, but I was 

 once, and my sympathy is with the farmer ; and I believe 

 the farmer is entitled to more than he gets of it. 



Mr. Morse. The brother says just right. If I can get 1 

 cent a quart more for that milk before I leave this city, I will 

 buy a white suit and put it on before I milk. We want to 

 do everything that is right, but we want pay for it, — that 

 is all. 



Mr. Allen. Just a little in rebuttal : I am superintend- 

 ent of the Springfield Co-operative Milk Association, the 

 corporation of farmers. Many people get a wrong idea of 

 this milk business. My prices have now advanced 1 cent a 

 quart ; most of the wholesale milk, l/'o cent a quart. Fur- 

 thermore, it takes time to work out your 6-cent tickets ; it 

 takes at least three weeks to do that, and we have advanced 

 in our i)articular institution 1/4 cent a quart, on the strength 

 of advanced prices. A great many people think that is a 



