COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 185 



These farmers' distributing companies are for the most 

 part in smaller cities and have thus far not been handling 

 large quantities of milk. Most of them distribute from 

 200 to 1,000 gallons of milk daily, while -one runs as high 

 as 4,000 gallons. In addition, of course, most of them 

 handle some surplus milk. These companies are giving 

 farmers an opportunity to get first hand information 

 regarding the complex problems of the milk distributing 

 business, and of the difficulties to be overcome if profits 

 are to be realized. 



The oldest of these companies is the Erie County Milk 

 Association of Erie, Pennsylvania, which was organized 

 in 1899. At that time there were eighty-five or ninety 

 milkmen driving into the city to distribute their own milk. 

 About 80 per cent of these joined in the formation of 

 a company. 1 Each member subscribed for $3.00 worth 

 of stock for each quart of milk supplied daily in other 

 words, a $50 share for every 1 6 2 / 3 quarts. The degree of 

 success of the venture is indicated by the fact that al- 

 though no stock has been issued in addition to the original 

 130,000, the market value in 1917 was $> 150,000.2 



A considerable number of these companies were formed 

 by groups of men who had been peddling their own milk, 

 as was the case at Erie. Such cooperation in each case 

 resulted in economies, not only in the handling of the 

 milk at the central plant, but in its distribution. The 

 economy resulting from cooperative distribution is in- 

 dicated by the comparison in Table XXXVI on p. 186. 



In some instances, as at Columbus, Ohio, where two 

 companies are now in operation, farmers got together and 

 formed these companies because they were dissatisfied 



1 Milk Trade Journal, Nov., 1917, p. 42. 



2 Marketing Dairy Products, Cir. No. i, U. S. Bu. of Markets, Feb., 1920. 



