72 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



In a village or small town, the milk is often delivered 

 before it is more than one or two hours old, being deliv- 

 ered twice a day. If only a morning delivery is made, 

 evening's milk is then about twelve to eighteen hours old 

 at time of delivery, but in most cases of indirect market- 

 ing, the evening's milk is at best about thirty-four to forty 

 hours old and the morning's milk at least twenty-two to 

 twenty-eight hours old at the time of delivery. 



In nearly every city a considerable quantity of milk is 

 marketed through the stores. In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 

 where a careful survey was made of the stores in 1916, 36 

 per cent of the city's milk was found to be sold in this way. 

 In Columbus, Ohio, in 191 9, about 35 per cent was handled 

 by the stores. In New York City the same year about 

 5 per cent was sold through the stores bottled, and about 

 30 per cent was sold through stores "loose," that is, in 

 bulk, dipped into any vessel the consumer might happen 

 to bring to the store. ^ 



Practically every writer on the milk problem refers to 

 the fact that with our present competitive system of dis- 

 tributing milk, there is an unnecessarily large amount of 

 duplication. Not only are there often more men engaged 

 in the business of delivering milk than are necessary, but 

 each has more machinery and general equipment than he 

 needs in handling his business, that is, each could usually 

 handle more business without an increase in his fixed 

 investment. Moreover, almost without exception the 

 dealers are charged with gross inefficiency. A personal 

 acquaintance with any of the accused dealers, however, 

 reveals the fact that they measure up very favorably with 

 other men of big business, which leads one to wonder if, 



' Report of Fair Price Committee of the City of New York, 1919, Legislative 

 Document, No. 29, p. 46. 



