﻿22 BULLETIN 1, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tional answers, 1. The conditional answers included 3 which 

 stated that the business was profitable only part of the time, and 1 

 which stated that it would be profitable if the markets for the prod- 

 uct were larger. These answers can not be considered as favorable 

 to the profitable production of certified milk, so a regrouping would 

 give: Profitable, 37; unprofitable, 37. 



Out of the 37 dairies which are classed as profitable there are 15 

 which state that the business is not very profitable or only fairly so. 

 There is very little doubt that certified milk can be produced and sold 

 at a fair profit, as this is being clone by many dairies at the present 

 time. However, the large number of unprofitable dairies shows that 

 there is need for a radical change in the methods of many of the farms 

 which are producing this class of milk. It is unquestionably the fact 

 that many certified-milk producers can lower the price of production 

 by applying better business principles to their operations, and this 

 will undoubtedly result in a swinging of the balance from loss to 

 profit on their books. 



OBSTACLES TO THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF CERTIFIED MILK. 



To support the statement that some certified dairies are run under 

 lax business methods, it is only necessary to point to a few figures 

 received by this department. For instance, one dairy reports that the 

 retail price of milk is 20 cents a quart, the average bacterial count is 

 4,000 per cubic centimeter, and that the business is not profitable and it 

 would require a retail price of 25 cents a quart to make it so. Another 

 dairy states that the retail price is only 12 cents, the bacterial count 

 3,000 (less than in the case of the other dairy), and that the business 

 is profitable. There is a difference of 8 cents a quart in favor of the 

 first dairy, and yet with that advantage it is unable to conduct the 

 business at a profit. 



Many certified-milk producers have erected extremely elaborate 

 buildings, the interest and depreciation on which are so high that the} r 

 form a considerable item to be charged against the cost of production. 

 The interest and depreciation on a simple, inexpensive certified plant 

 is estimated to amount to at least 6 cents a gallon, or 1| cents a quart. 

 In some of the more elaborate plants, where much money has been 

 spent for ornamental equipment, the interest and depreciation would 

 be much higher. Experience in the past has proved that the produc- 

 tion of clean milk is not dependent upon expensive equipment so 

 much as upon care and vigilance concerning the methods of produc- 

 tion. It is a well-known fact in business that a manufacturing plant 

 can not afford to turn out such a small quantity of goods that the 

 interest and depreciation on the factory will be too heavy a tax on 

 the goods sold. Applying this same principle to dairying, it is almost 

 impossible to see where some of the small dairies can afford to operate 



