204 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



ducers' Association, an organization built up to overcome 

 adverse price conditions. 



The formula was, however, adopted as a base of price 

 determination on March i, but only after considerable 

 modification. This modification consisted mainly in 

 bringing up to date the figure 177, representing the per- 

 centage of increase over the basic period, thus making it 

 181 for March, so that the producers got in March $3.10 

 instead of $2.83, as first awarded. Succeeding months 

 were then to be based on further changes in the prices 

 of the various items. 1 The formula method was then 

 actually used for a number of months, when it was further 

 revised, this time in such a way that the current values of 

 the commodity costs of producing 100 pounds of milk 

 should directly equal the value of 100 pounds of milk. 

 These commodity cost items were to be: 



20 pounds home-grown grains 

 24 pounds manufactured feeds 

 no pounds hay 

 3 hours labor 



After ascertaining the current values of these items 

 from the Department of Agriculture reports and from 

 current market journals, 2 the total value of these quan- 

 tities was to be considered the value of the milk. In order 

 to allow for seasonal variations in the prices of milk, the 

 following percentage scale was to be applied to the basic 

 price to determine the actual price for the month under 

 consideration. 3 



1 Duncan, C. S., Jour, of Pol. Econ., Apr., 1918, p. 314. 



2 See Milk News, July and August, 1918, p. 2, for detailed method of deter- 

 mining these values. 



3 Ibid. 



