254 DAIRY FARMING 



220. Value of Skim-milk in Cities. When milk is sold to 

 the creamery, the fat basis is, of course, the proper basis of 

 payment. Argument is often made that payment for market 

 milk should be on the same basis. The public is often ac- 

 cused of ignorance because it refuses to pay for milk in pro- 

 portion to the fat contained. 



For human food, protein is probably the most important 

 constituent of milk. How much the cities are willing to 

 pay for skim-milk is shown by the high price that they are 

 willing to pay for milk when they could get the same butter- 

 fat in cream at much less cost. If the other constituents 

 were in proportion to the fat, then the percentage of fat 

 would be in proportion to the value as human food, but 

 the richness in protein does not increase so rapidly as 

 the fat. 



Common retail prices in New York City are 9 cents for 

 milk, 40 cents per quart for 23 per cent cream, and 38 cents 

 per pound for butter. 1 On the average, milk contains about 

 3.7 per cent fat. At these prices the butter-fat costs 

 about $1. 13 per pound in milk, 82 cents in cream, and 44 

 cents in butter. 



Evidently, milk is not purchased merely for its butter-fat, 

 else butter-fat in cream would sell at the same price that it 

 does in milk. The value that the public places on fat, as 

 measured by the price of cream, shows that about 27 per cent 

 of the amount paid for milk is paid for food that is contained 

 in the skim-milk. Stated in another way, if the value of the 

 fat is measured by the price of cream, then the fat in a quart 

 of milk is worth 6.5 cents, and the skim-milk sells for 2.5 

 cents. Or, if the fat in milk is considered to have the same 



1 Prices furnished by the Borden Company and verified from several 

 other sources. 



