INTRODUCTION 



The efficiency wave that has gone through our factories in 

 recent years is reaching the farms and dairies of the country. 

 Because of cheap land and the great natural fertility of the 

 soil, because new lands have been opened up almost every 

 year, and because the farmers have been able to succeed with- 

 out efficient management, they have been the last to make a 

 systematic study of operation and cost of production. Cost 

 determination is essential to efficiency. It not only furnishes 

 a guide to a profitable selling price, but also enables the pro- 

 ducer or manager to direct and control the different factors of 

 cost. A complete and properly arranged cost statement en- 

 ables the dairyman to study and to compare methods and 

 finally to determine by which method milk can be produced 

 most cheaply. 



Milk is one of the most important of our agricultural prod- 

 ucts. There is no substitute for it, and it will always be in 

 demand. Such proper adjustment as will encourage the dairy 

 industry must and will be made. The consumer eventually 

 will pay the producer a reasonable profit. The results of 

 surveys and studies of cost estimates, however, indicate the 

 existence of rather startling conditions. Some of these are so 

 significant that it may be appropriate to quote at some length 

 from the discussions of conclusions made by men who have 

 studied the concrete situation. The most sweeping statement 

 is made by Professor J. B. Lindsey,^ who, in discussing the 

 results of an experiment covering 15 years, says: 



"It is very evident from our own figures and from those derived 

 from other sources that under present conditions it is not satisfac- 

 tory business to attempt to produce reasonably clean milk under 



' Massachusetts Agr. Exp. Sta., Bulletin No. 145, pp. 20-21. 



