No. 4.] UNITED STATES DAIRYING. 161 



For some j^eaj's a prominent Phil:idel[)hla dealer has sold 

 different grades of milk, guaranteed as having at least three, 

 four and five per cent of fat, and I recently found a German- 

 American dairyman selling to families and invalids in Los 

 Angeles, Cal., milk in bottles, respectively marked and 

 Guaranteed to carry four, five and six per cent of fat. These 

 high grades were obtained by adding cream. 



There are other needed reforms in the milk trade. As 

 now conducted, there is inexcusable loss of labor and other 

 wastes. The business will never be right so long as con- 

 sumers pay twice as much per quart, and frequently three 

 times as much, as the producer receives. Middlemen seem 

 to be a necessity in this, as in other lines of traffic, but they 

 are an incubus if not an evil, which should be eliminated as 

 far as possible. There is certainly no sense in delivery 

 vehicles travelling ten times as far in the aggregate as is 

 necessary to serve properly a given number of families or 

 customers. And the night work in transfers and deliveries, 

 which is so fatiguing and expensive, is all unnecessary. Co- 

 operation in supply and delivery is possible, if men will only 

 co-operate ; but the army of small dealers and drivers, now 

 living on what the producer loses and ought to save, will not 

 cut off their own heads ; the reform movement, where it is 

 practicable, must begin with producers. Witness the success 

 of the milk associations at Syracuse, N. Y., and at Spring- 

 field, Mass. Why are there not more of these excellent 

 co-operative enterprises ? The night work and early-delivery 

 custom is founded on a mixture of ignorance and prejudice, 

 — if these are not the same thing. This pre_judice on the 

 part of consumers can be broken down, by proper effort. 

 There is no good reason why milk should not be delivered 

 to customers in cities and towns, like most articles of mer- 

 chandise, at such time during the day as best suits the con- 

 venience of the seller. One firm in New York City has 

 solved the whole problem by supplying at a fair price an 

 article of milk so good that consumers are glad to get it at 

 any time, and this is delivered all along through the regular 

 business hours of the day, in a manner economical and sat- 

 isfactory to the dealers. 



Fourth. — In dealing with the desirability of extending 



