MILK PRICES 205 



Per cent 



January 117 



February 112 



March 105 



April 95 



May 80 



June 70 



July 85 



August 95 



September 100 



October 107 



November 115 



December 119 



As thus revised, the plan was used as a price deter- 

 minant for a number of months. At the present time it 

 is used chiefly as a starting point or basis for collective 

 bargaining. 



Similar methods of arriving at milk prices were tried in 

 a number of sections, particularly in New York City, 

 where the so-called Warren Formula was used. The milk 

 boycott of January, 1919, was a direct result of the at- 

 tempt on the part of the Dairymen's League to use this 

 formula. At the present time this method has practically 

 been abandoned as a direct price determinant. The main 

 reasons for its failure seem to have been the following: 

 (i) Prices and costs do not coincide at given times and 

 places, even though on the average there is a relatively 

 close relationship between seasonal costs and prices of 

 milk; 1 (2) as prices of the various items of cost entering 

 into milk production change, farmers are likely to change 

 the proportions used, thus vitiating the formula; (3) other 

 changes may have occurred at the same time costs were 



1 See Figure 9. 



