1 52 CLEAN MILK 



make any profit. ■ This figure is a low estimate when various un- 

 avoidable losses are taken into account, as repairs and deterioration 

 of milk boxes, harness, sickness and death of horses, loss of ac- 

 counts, bottles, etc. I believe that seven to eight cents a quart for 

 bottled milk, for the farmer, and twelve to fifteen cents a quart for 

 the distributor of clean milk in the city, is a safe estimate as a basis 

 on which a profitable business for both may be done.* The price 

 of certified milk is on the average sold retail for 5 cents more a 

 quart than ordinary market milk, the price of market milk vary- 

 ing with the locality. It is impossible to keep up the standard 

 of clean milk unless a reasonable profit is being made at both 

 ends of the business. 



When milk is bottled and retailed in the city the cost is about 

 as follows : 



Freight and cartage 1% cents. 



Bottling and icing iy z cents. 



Wagon delivery I cent. 



Office expenses per quart & cent. 



Total cost of handling 4^ cts per qt. 



If milk is delivered by wagon directly from farm to consumer, 

 the freight, cartage, and office expenses are cut out and labor is often 

 cheaper in country towns, so that the cost of handling and delivering 

 milk direct from the farm to the consumer would be from 2 to 3 

 cents a quart. 



Every step by which the milk is improved costs money in labor 

 or material, and it has been my experience that it is useless to ex- 



* In Hoard's Dairyman of a recent date the proportionate receipts from a 

 quart of milk retailing for 8 cents in New York City, are given as follows: 



Cents 



Producer receives 2.75 



Railroad for transporting, receives 0.5 



Dealers handling, bottling and distributing the same, receive 4.75 



8.00 



