CHAPTER II 



MILK AS A MARKET COMMODITY 



Section i. Some Comparisons 



THE United States Bureau of Markets has made the es- 

 timate that a total of 87,905,512,800 pounds of milk was 

 produced in the United States in 1918. Of this, it further 

 estimated, 44.25 per cent was consumed as fluid milk. 1 

 Figuring the food value of milk at 307 calories per pound 

 and the food value of potatoes at 303.4 calories per pound 

 (figures used in Illinois Experiment Station Circular 235, 

 pp. 5 and 1 8), the food value of the fluid milk consumed in 

 1918 was 60 per cent greater than that of the entire potato 

 crop of the same year. 2 On a basis of money value, figur- 

 ing the value of milk at $2.80 per hundred 3 and taking the 

 average price of wheat and potatoes as given by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture for December i, 1918, we have the 

 following comparison of values: 



Fluid milk consumed 1918 $1,089,200,000 



Potato crop of 1918 478,136,000 



Wheat crop of 1918 1,874,623,000 



How the total of over eighty-seven billion pounds of milk 

 was utilized has been estimated by the Bureau of Markets 

 as follows: 4 



1 Hoard's Dairyman, May 23, 1919, p. 916. 



2 See Year Book, Department of Agriculture, 1918. 

 8 Hoard's Dairyman, May 23, 1919. 



4 Hoard's Dairyman, May 23, 1919. 



4 



