DISTRIBUTION OF MILK 129 



Moreover, there is difficulty in ascertaining the true 

 cost of delivering a quart of milk because of the fact that 

 almost every dealer does a mixed business. Each delivers 

 bottled milk at retail and at wholesale and usually some 

 in cans. Each is likely to deliver cream in bottles at the 

 homes or in cans to restaurants, etc. Then there is also 

 the question of relative costs of supplying single pints or 

 quarts. It costs more to deliver a gallon of milk in pint 

 bottles than in quart bottles. It is hard to say how much 

 more. It often happens that the same wagons in certain 

 sections of a city perform all these services. Here, then, 

 we have the problem of joint costs in all its complexities, 

 and this problem the investigators in various cities have 

 met in different ways, and hence for this reason alone 

 cost figures would vary. 



Section 10. development of the Present System of 

 Distribution 



The present system of distribution is the result of de- 

 velopment — not of retrogression. Our milk dealers have 

 seen the advantages to be gained from the use of modern 

 equipment, but have found that such equipment can be 

 used profitably only with large volume of business. By 

 the use of modern methods, which have often resulted in 

 lower operating costs, and by putting on the market 

 a superior, well-advertised article, the larger dealers 

 have been able to take over more and more of the 

 business. Instances of this have already been pointed 

 out. 



There is undoubtedly still much inefficiency in the milk 

 business and a great deal of waste from duplication of 

 effort and equipment, but conditions are certainly better 



