COOPERATIVE MILK-DISTRIBUTING PLANTS. 19 



SELECTING A MANAGER. 



In considering the employment of a milk-plant manager, his 

 qualifications in reference to all factors which make for the success 

 of a milk-distributing plant should be considered. Where the 

 organization is newly formed and a plant must be constructed and 

 equipped, it is usually desirable to employ the manager early, so that 

 his advice in matters of arrangement and equipment may be ob- 

 tained and that he may have ample time to determine upon best plans 

 and policies for the conduct of the business before it is undertaken. 



In selecting a manager due consideration should be given by the 

 board of directors to the local conditions and problems to be met. 

 Previous successful experience along business lines of the same or a 

 similar character is a valuable asset, as are dairy-school training and 

 a knowledge of the manufacture of by-products. 



The employment of a manager largely because he is willing to ac- 

 cept a lower salary than others is a mistake tO' be avoided. Quality 

 of service and price should be as much coordinated in the person of a 

 competent manager as in the product produced and sold by the milk- 

 distributing plant. Experience in the sale or manufacture of milk 

 by-products, such as butter, cheese, ice cream, and condensed milk,, 

 does not necessarily qualify a man for the position of manager of a 

 market-milk distributing plant. Milk by-products are less perishable 

 than milk and their sale does not involve such a highly organized- 

 house-to-house distributing system as market milk. By-product 

 marketing does not often afford experience in retail-route adminis- 

 tration nor in the intensive development of new business such as is 

 required in a milk plant. Competent milk-plant managers are in 

 active demand everywhere. In small plants they receive salaries of 

 $6 to $10 per day or above, which in fact are scarcely above those 

 of capable workmen, whose responsibilities may be considerably less. 

 Managers' salaries in large plants range from $2,400 to $6,000 and 

 above per annum (either straight salary or salary and commis- 

 sion) and are based not so much on the size of the business as on the 

 results or success obtained. 



Frequently such agencies as the State colleges of agriculture, State 

 dairy and food commissioners, the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, dairy and. creamery equipment and supply houses, and 

 dairy trade journals have knowledge of persons capable of managing 

 milk plants and are able to give assistance in locating them. They 

 also may be secured from the ranks of successful small-plant mana- 

 gers or department superintendents in large plants. 



