480 Transactions of the American Institute. 



anywhere ; they sell well in this market, and go far toward paying for 

 the expense of planting the trees and interest on land. 



The Milk Business. 



John S. Higgins, Fleraington, N. J. — The fanners of Hunterdon 

 county have been engaged for the past two or three years in sending 

 milk to New York, and have found many abuses and irregularities 

 connected with the business. These we would like to see corrected, 

 if possible, and, with this end in view, we would ask whether a milk 

 convention could not be called in your city, consisting of milkmen 

 shipping on the several railroads, and some of the principal dealers 

 and consumers in the city. Some of the questions which we would 

 like to hear discussed are as follows : Would it not be better to have 

 milk disposed of in New York, like the majority of commodities, by 

 agents, or on commission, giving a certain per cent for selling \ Could 

 all the milk on each road be sent to one place, as far as practicable, 

 and have an inspector to test the milk at irregular times, say every 

 two weeks or monthly, and mark each shipper's milk according to 

 the test ? Could not the abuse of selling so much adulterated milk, 

 in this or in some other way, be greatly prevented, and farmers be 

 secured from losing so much money among the (I will not say dis- 

 honest, but) small and irregular milk dealers ? By selling on the 

 platform, or at milk depots, at cash prices, would not a uniformity of 

 prices prevail throughout the city, and all dealers stand on the same 

 equality as to prices, and healthy competition be secured; and would 

 not the business be thus made more regular in supply and demand 

 than at present % 



Mr. Hart — I am glad this letter has been read, for it happens. that 

 I have come all the way from West Cornwall, Conn., with the inten- 

 tion of asking similar questions here, and this gives me a good excuse 

 for soliciting your indulgence. I hold in my hand a slip of paper 

 containing a few figures, which I have been at some pains to collect, 

 and which may not be wholly uninteresting. I find that about 8,000 

 forty-quart cans of milk are consumed daily in this city; that at least 

 three quarts of water are mixed with the contents of each can [A 

 Member — Better say three gallons], or 24,000 quarts per day. This, 

 at ten cents a quart, makes the snug sum of $2,400 daily, or nearly 

 $1,000,000 a year. This is certainly worth saving. Again, if some 

 way could be contrived by means of which the producer and consumer 

 could be brought together, milk could well be afforded a cent a quart 

 cheaper, and this would secure another saving of something like a 



