MARKET MILK BUSINESS OP DETROIT, MICH., IN 1915. 5 



dredweight. For milk testing more than 3.7 per cent a premium of 

 2 cents for each one-tenth of 1 per cent butterfat was paid. When 

 compared upon a common basis the prices actually paid by the vari- 

 ous dealers were found to vary considerably. 



Figure 2 shows the average prices (f. o. b. Detroit) paid by milk 

 dealers handling different quantities of milk during 1915, as well as 

 the rather wide seasonal variations in prices paid to farmers. A 

 fundamental reason for these variations is that at certain seasons 

 the quantity of milk supplied by farmers is either above or below 

 the city demands, because farmers generally can not regulate their 

 daily and seasonal production in accordance with the varying de- 

 mands of city consumers. As farmers generally did not utilize the 





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(915 



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GE OF ALL DEALERS 









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B-23 

 30-150 



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Fig. 



2. — Average prices paid farmers by all milk dealers, grouped according to number 

 of delivery wagons operated by each. 



milk produced in excess of the demands for market milk, the dealers 

 bought all the milk. That necessitated the manufacture of cheese, 

 butter, or condensed milk, which seldom yield as much as market 

 milk. Some of the dealers who had no facilities for the economical 

 disposal of skim milk actually dumped it into the sewers. 



The prices paid by the larger dealers fluctuated more than those 

 paid by the smaller ones. The latter also usually paid the highest 

 prices for their milk, which is explained in part by the fact that the 

 former obtained their supplies from localities farther from the city, 

 where competition for market milk was not so keen, and where in- 

 creased costs of transportation tended to reduce the prices paid to 

 the farmer as is shown in Table II. 



