66 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



of city plants. In some cities like Chicago with the dairy 

 districts at their very gates, the city plants have largely 

 disappeared; practically all of the milk being shipped in 

 bottles from the country to the city." 



The limitations of the country milk plant are thus 

 described by the Wicks Committee in its report on the 

 New York district in 1916:^ "The auditor's report made 

 to this committee from the books and records of certain 

 distributors established the proposition that market milk 

 can be handled, clarified, pasteurized, and bottled at 

 the country station at a lower cost than the same work 

 can be done in the city plant. On the other hand, the 

 milk distributor asserts that the business of the large dis- 

 tributing companies cannot be successfully handled 

 through the operation of a large number of small country 

 plants. They contend that the operation of two or three 

 country plants, where a less cost of pasteurization, etc., 

 is shown, does not afford a just basis of comparison as to 

 what the costs would be if all the business of the large 

 companies was attempted to be handled in that way. The 

 testimony of the larger distributors is to the effect that it 

 would be impractical and impossible to carry on their 

 business satisfactorily by buying their daily supply through 

 out the year from a great number of cooperative plants 

 managed and conducted by the dairymen, because of the 

 fluctuating and varying needs of the business and the un- 

 certainty of the supply at different seasons from various 

 country stations so controlled. In other words, their 

 contention is that if all the milk now handled at the cen- 

 tral city plants was attempted to be handled by them 

 in their own plants at the shipping point, it would require 



' Preliminary Report of Joint Legislative Committee on Dairy Products, Live- 

 stock and Poultry, p. S99- 



