MARKET MILK BUSINESS OF DETROIT, MICH., IN 1915. 



9 



The total number of gallons handled by different groups of dealers, 

 as shown in Tables I and II, does not correspond to the total shown 

 in Table IV, because large quantities of milk were bought from 

 farmers by those dealers and not used for market milk purposes but 

 manufactured into butter, cheese, condensed milk, powdered milk, 

 and casein. 



The larger companies obtained the greater part of their supply 

 through the country milk stations or " collecting depots," which 

 they usually owned. A few of the country stations were owned 

 either by farmers' cooperative associations or by individual farmers 

 whose dairy houses were equipped to handle truck loads of milk pro- 

 duced on neighboring farms. (See PI. I, fig. 1.) 



The typical milk-receiving station consisted of a wooden-framed 

 building equipped with a small boiler, apparatus for washing and 

 sterilizing milk utensils, scales for weighing milk, and a tank for 

 holding the cans of milk in ice water until time to ship to the city. 

 During the winter natural ice was usually stored in an adjoining 

 building for use in the summer. Stations which skimmed or utilized 

 surplus milk at certain seasons had additional and more expensive 

 equipment, such as receiving tanks, mixing vats, cheese vats, sepa- 

 rators, churns, pasteurizers, coolers, and equipment for condensing 

 milk. (See PL I, fig. 2.) 



Table V shows the relation of the amounts invested in 16 country 

 milk stations to the number of gallons handled daily. 



Table V 



-Relation of investment in country stations to gallons of milk handled 

 daily during June, 1915. 



Station number. 



Gallons of milk han- 

 dled daily. 



Investment 

 in buildings 



and 

 equipment. 



Invest- 

 ment per 

 gallon 





Cooled. 



Skimmed. 



handled 

 daily. 



1 



77 



124 



172 



226 



317 



382 



447 



465 



779 



842 



1,009 



760 



738 



1,907 



1,404 



2,662 





S380.00 



818.00 



440. 00 



876.00 



1,325.00 



1,675.00 



609.00 



1,325.00 



3,450.00 



4,553.00 



2, 253. 00 



1,800.00 



1,952.00 



4,752.00 



2,053.00 



5, 745. 00 



$4.94 



2 





6.60 



3 





2.59 



4 





3.88 







4.18 



6 





4.39 







1.36 



8 





2.85 



9 





4.43 



10 





5.41 



11 





2 23 



12 



720 

 830 



1.22 



13 



1 24 



14 



2 49 



15 



1,155 



SO 



16 



2 16 









■ Average 



769 





2,125.00 



3.17 









The investment in the stations does not bear a direct relation to 

 the quantity of milk shipped. Some of the stations were creameries 

 or cheese factories which had been converted into receiving stations, 



