THE MARKETS FOR WHOLE MILK 57 



on the open market in competition with similar products 

 produced where milk can be purchased more cheaply. 

 This was illustrated in the Chicago dairy district in the 

 spring of 1916. During a period in which prices are ad- 

 justing themselves there may be wide differences in the 

 net returns obtainable in the various markets, and the 

 alert farmer can materially benefit by selling in the right 

 market. The more alert the producers as a whole are to 

 relative changes in market demands, as expressed by mar- 

 ket prices, the more quickly will prices in the various 

 markets become adjusted. 



Although a creamery can seldom outbid a city for the 

 milk near the city, it can readily compete farther out. 

 Creamery prices are lower than city prices, but they are 

 for only a portion of the milk. The farmer has his skim 

 milk to consider in addition. Where there is young stock 

 to be fed, skim milk has a value variously estimated at 

 twenty-five cents to one dollar a hundredweight, which 

 thus easily brings the returns to a point where they ap- 

 proach or equal those for whole milk. Moreover, cream 

 need not be marketed every day, and hence the man who 

 sells cream saves a trip to the creamery or milk plant at 

 least every second day. In fact, in many parts of the 

 country, where the centralizer method predominates, 

 cream is often kept a week or more in cool weather. Be- 

 cause of the fact that cream can be hauled profitably much 

 longer distances than can milk, creameries thrive in more 

 sparsely settled communities than do cheese factories 

 or condenseries. 



Prices paid by cheese factories are usually somewhat 

 higher than those paid by creameries, but, instead of hav- 

 ing the skim milk for feed, the farmer gets only the whey, 

 which has less feeding value. Moreover, there is the 



