COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 139 



collective bargaining by milk producers occurred in March, 

 1883, among the farmers of Orange County who were 

 shipping milk to New York City. Many of the city milk 

 dealers, the farmers claimed, lowered f he price paid the 

 producers whenever they could, or they did not pay for 

 what they bought. The farmers, eight hundred of whom 

 had formed an association, and the dealers met late in 

 February, 1883, to decide upon the price of milk. 1 The 

 dealers were paying three cents per quart at the depots 

 along the railroads for milk which retailed in the city at 

 ten cents. The dairymen demanded three and a half cents. 2 

 Since no agreement could be reached, the producers held 

 a general mass meeting and passed a resolution that all 

 milk should stop the next night. Accordingly 104,000 

 quarts were held back voluntarily, 3 and organized groups 

 of men emptied the milk from the cans of those who at- 

 tempted to ship to New York. 4 After three days of this 

 warfare, the farmers secured nearly all of the increase 

 demanded. They were able to maintain the price for 

 their milk throughout the remainder of the year and the 

 first six months of 1884. This association was still in exist- 

 ence in i887, 5 but the need for wider organization was 

 coming to be felt. Plans were generally discussed for 

 the building of cooperative milk plants and creameries 

 which would take care of the surplus and thus, in prevent- 

 ing the flooding of the market, keep up the price of milk. 6 

 To make this plan effective it was necessary to unite pro- 

 ducers in the five states from which New York City re- 



1 Report of N. Y. Dairy Association meeting for 1885. 



2 Cultivator & Country Gentleman, Mar. 29, 1883. 



8 Report of N. Y. Dairy Association meeting for 1885. 

 4 Cultivator and Country Gentleman, Mar. 29, 1883. 

 6 Ibid., June 30, 1887. 

 Rural New Yorker, Feb. 25, 1888. 



