DISTRIBUTION OF MILK 73 



after all, there is not another side to the mooted question, 

 and whether the constant effort to reduce costs in order 

 to increase profits does not in large measure offset the 

 apparent wastes of competition. 



Section 4. Direct Marketing 



In our smaller cities and towns practically all milk is 

 retailed by the producers themselves. The same practice 

 is followed to some extent even in the larger cities. In 

 Columbus, Ohio, for example, 1 perhaps 5 or 10 percent of 

 the milk is still brought in by producers. No hard and 

 fast line can be drawn, however, between direct and in- 

 direct marketing, since almost every producer who dis- 

 tributes his own product finds at certain seasons that he 

 cannot supply the demand without buying additional 

 milk from a creamery, a milk plant, or from neighboring 

 producers. In the main, however, the division is fairly 

 clear. 



On the outskirts of a town one often finds a producer 

 with one or several cows who delivers on foot to neighbors, 

 or a city dealer may have one or more cows from which 

 milk is delivered to neighbors in the immediate vicinity, 

 often by a boy or girl, who does the work before going to 

 school. In some instances milk is delivered by producers 

 on their way to a creamery or cheese factory. In other 

 instances the consumers themselves go for the milk, some 

 going in the morning, others at night, or perhaps some 

 going both morning and night. When the consumer calls 

 for the milk, the price is usually a cent or two cheaper than 

 if the milk is delivered. 



The methods of delivery in direct marketing vary from 

 delivery on foot or with a small express wagon, as fre- 



1 A city of about 225,000 population. 



