PREFACE 



The growing interest in the cost of producing milk is largely 

 due to the increase in price during the past few years. State 

 and Federal experts have studied the problem, and Extension 

 and County agricultural workers, city chambers of commerce, 

 special committees appointed by citizens, boards of health, and 

 other municipal organizations and officers are devoting con- 

 siderable effort to the study of milk cost. 



There is considerable unrest in the dairy industry: The 

 producer commonly is not satisfied with the price he receives, 

 the dealer feels that he is receiving no more than his share of 

 the final price for the class of milk and the service demanded 

 by the consumer, and the consumer objects to the increase 

 that from time to time is made in the price of milk. In gen- 

 eral, the production and the sale of milk are not on a sound 

 economic basis, and the method of cost computation discussed 

 herein is offered as a step toward establishing sound and equi- 

 table conditions. It is hoped that it will at least lead to a 

 standard method that may be used generally and that it may 

 afford opportunity for comparisons. This study only deals 

 with the problem from the standpoint of cost of production, 

 and does not include the subject of distribution, which con- 

 stitutes a problem of perhaps equal importance. 



In the many bulletins and reports extant on the cost of 

 producing milk, no two of them follow the same plan; even 

 different reports from the same experiment station have been 

 worked out under systems that make comparisons impossible. 

 The various writers are not agreed on the relative importance 

 of the different factors involved and the methods of handling 

 them. In this discussion an effort is made to analyze each 

 item of cost and also to apply the methods and practices of 

 recognized authorities in factory cost accounting as far as they 

 may be applied to milk production cost. 



