210 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



The main difficulty, however, is not to be found in the 

 fact that the fluctuations occur at different rates, for 

 these could be counterbalanced by the use of differentials 

 for each of the various months, much as the Dairymen's 

 League has worked our differentials in connection with 

 its attempt to use the butter-cheese basis. The real 

 difficulty would come from the fact that butter and cheese 

 prices so often fluctuate more or less independently and 

 at certain times may be considerably at variance with 

 their usual position relative to milk. Note for example 

 irregularities shown in the chart comparing New York 

 milk and New York butter extras for a period of twenty 

 years. (Figure 14.) The chart represents relative prices, 

 and hence milk and butter are directly comparable. It will 

 be noticed that milk almost invariablygoes higher in winter 

 and lower in summer than butter and that it does so in such 

 an irregular manner that it is extremely doubtful whether 

 this basis would be satisfactory to both producers and 

 dealers for any length of time, even in normal times. 

 Notice particularly for some of these irregularities the 

 winters of 1907 and 1908, 1910 and 1911, and the winter 

 and spring of 1912-13. 



Another proposal, brought forward in the condensery 

 district of Wisconsin, is that of basing milk prices on 

 prices of butter and corn. According to this plan, the 

 butterfat in milk is to be paid for on the basis of butter 

 prices, while an allowance is to be made for the skim milk 

 in 100 pounds of milk on the basis of its feeding value as 

 compared with corn. Column 4 in Table XXXVII gives 

 the monthly variation in milk prices based on prices of 

 butter and corn. One hundred pounds of milk is to be 

 considered worth the number of pounds of butterfat in 

 the milk times the Chicago market price of 92 score butter, 



