PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION 151 



the fuel for running the boiler, the ice, etc. In the milk room, 

 there is the washing and sterilizing of all the bottles and apparatus, 

 and the bottling of milk and packing of the bottles in boxes with 

 ice. The farmer must make a considerable outlay for the parapher- 

 nalia in his milk room, but the bottles, in this vicinity, are sup- 

 plied by the distributors in the city. 



The minimum price paid to the producer is about 6 cents a 

 quart — the bottles, cases and freight being paid by the distributor. 

 The highest price paid in any part of the country to the pro- 

 ducer for bottled, certified milk delivered at the local R. R. station 

 is at present 10 cents. 



The cost of transporting milk by rail in bottles to the city, 

 some 30 miles, is I cent a quart in this region, and it costs about 

 the same in other cities. This figure includes the cpst of carriage 

 for the galvanized iron box, holding one dozen bottles and ice, 

 the whole weighing 68 lbs., and also the return of empty bottles and 

 cases to the farm. 



The cost of distributing clean milk is much greater than ord- 

 inary milk, when ice is used, owing to the weight of the ice and 

 cases holding the bottles and the fact that customers of high priced 

 milk are apt to be scattered about. The cost of distribution of 

 bottled milk has been set down at two cents a quart, but three cents 

 a quart would be nearer the mark in this vicinity for milk sold 

 on ice the year round. The farmer should then receive at least 

 seven cents a quart net for bottled certified milk as the minimum 

 figure, according to my experience in this region, or about double 

 what he has received for ordinary market milk. This is a uniform 

 price for the year around. For the ordinary milk he has hitherto 

 received from nine cents to sixteen cents per gallon, at different 

 seasons, and it has retailed at about seven cents a quart (bottled). 



The distributor of milk, if he pays the farmer seven cents 

 per quart for bottled certified milk on ice and one cent per quart 

 freight, should get twelve cents as a minimum price per quart to 



