66 Cooperation in Agriculture 



that the control of the milk supply of New York City is 

 in the hands of a few large corporations and associations 

 of milk dealers, that the price which the New York State 

 dairyman receives for the milk does not often exceed the 

 cost of production and sometimes falls below the produc- 

 tion cost, and that the price which the consumer pays for 

 bottled milk and milk in other forms has been generally 

 and arbitrarily raised at different times in the past. It 

 has been shown also that the large dealers in milk have 

 used coercive methods to prevent independent dealers or 

 any other agency that might improve the condition of 

 the dairyman from establishing a milk trade in the city 

 of New York. The wheat and corn growers of the Central 

 West faced a similar condition a few years ago as a result 

 of the arbitrary action of the line elevators and independent 

 elevator companies who coerced the railroads and the re- 

 ceivers of grain to the extent of making it impossible for 

 an individual grower to market the crop except under 

 conditions which they dictated. The individual producer 

 of beef or pork is in the same condition as a result of the 

 meat industry having passed into the hands of a few large 

 corporations which are in position to dictate the price of 

 live-stock. An individual grower cannot cope with a 

 situation of this kind. 



A small association can adopt rules of grading and can 

 standardize and economize in preparing the product for 

 market, but it cannot develop a comprehensive system 

 either to meet competition or to develop markets, nor 

 can it handle the general problems that affect an industry 

 in a larger way, though it can manage these questions 

 more effectively than the individual who acts alone. 



