144 THE COW 



Another weakness of the milk business from a 

 commercial standpoint is the fact that the product 

 must be sold as rapidly as produced and that once 

 production is under way it cannot be arrested 

 quickly to conform to the demands of a falling 

 market. By aid of cold storage, butter and cheese 

 and other milk products may be held for some 

 months in good condition, but market milk must 

 find its final market within twenty-four hours of 

 its production. Save in a few special cases, the 

 dairyman has ceased to be a manufacturer and 

 has become merely a producer of raw materials. 

 While theoretically at least the very perishable 

 nature of his product has left the dairyman at the 

 mercy of the dealer and manufacturer, yet as a 

 matter of fact the demoralization of the milk mar- 

 ket never approaches that sometimes experienced 

 in fruits and truck. 



One of the advantages of the dairy business is 

 its stability. The dairyman is never caught up to 

 new and undreamed-of heights of prosperity. It 

 is probable that through a series of years no 

 other agricultural product shows a curve of prices 

 so regular or so closely estimated in advance. The 

 rise and fall of dairy prices, with certain minor 

 variations, is almost as regular as the seasons. 

 Always the lowest prices of the year come in April, 

 May and June, then start to advance and reach 

 the peak in November and then begin an orderly 

 decline to the low point again in April. No man 



