56 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



6. Sell milk to a creamery. 



7. Ship cream to Chicago. 



8. Ship cream to Milwaukee 



9. Sell cream to some neighboring creamery. 



10. Sell sweet cream to some ice-cream factory. 



11. Make butter at home. 



12. Make cheese at home. 



Few men, of course, have such a wide range of choice; in 

 fact, even in the case supposed, some of the markets may 

 be promptly ruled out because of the high cost of reaching 

 them. Nearly every farmer, however, has several markets 

 to which he can turn with no great inconvenience in mak- 

 ing the change from one to the other. 



Ordinarily enough men are so located as to make sure 

 that prices to be obtained in the leading markets are 

 never for long far apart. If, for example, the demand for 

 condensed milk were suddenly greatly increased, the price 

 for that commodity would go up, and condensery districts 

 would be able to outbid nearby city markets, with the 

 result that milk formerly going to the latter would go to 

 the condenseries and thus force city prices to higher levels. 

 This might work itself out through scattered individuals, 

 or through the threats of a whole group on a certain route 

 to go to the competing market. Exactly such conditions 

 frequently obtained during 1916, 1917, and 1918, when 

 the condensed milk market was so uncertain that con- 

 densers frequently found themselves able to pay very high 

 prices at one time, and thus to draw on city supplies, only 

 to be confronted by the danger of serious loss at a later 

 date, whereupon the reverse movement took place. Con- 

 denseries in normal times, it might be said, have difficulty 

 in competing with the city milk trade, since their products, 

 produced from milk purchased near a large city, must sell 



