UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
7p 
sw7 

Washington, D. C. Vv October 12, 1922 

PRODUCERS’ COOPERATIVE MILK-DISTRIBUT- 
| ING PLANTS. 
‘By O. B. JESNESS,’ Specialist in Cooperative Organization, W. H. BArBer,’ As- 
sistant in Marketing Dairy Products, and A. V. SwartTHout, Investigator in 
Market Business Practice, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and C. E. 
CLEMENT, Market Milk Specialist, Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. 
Milk producers supplying a number of cities have undertaken to 
solve some of their milk-marketing problems by the establishment of 
cooperative milk-distributing plants. The objects sought and the 
conditions which prompted the producers in their actions have been 
varied. In some instances a number of producers, each delivering 
direct to consumers, have sought to eliminate the duplication result- 
ing from their individual route-delivery services and to reduce the 
cost of distribution by establishing a cooperative plant with a cen- 
tralized delivery system. Difficulty in procuring necessary farm 
_labor has been a factor in some instances in encouraging the estab- 
lishment of a central plant, since it enabled the producers to devote 
more time to production. . 
Ordinances requiring tuberculin testing of all cows or the pasteuri- 
zation of all milk under strict sanitary regulations of the health de- 
partment have in some cases made it desirable for producers to estab- 
lish a cooperative milk-pasteurization plant in order to comply with 
the city ordinances. In some instances producers have purchased 
privately owned plants with a view to effecting greater efficiency and 
economy in handling and distributing their milk supplies. Low 
prices and alleged unfair treatment from private concerns sometimes | 
have aroused action which has resulted in the establishment of coop- 
erative plants. 
Cooperative milk-distributing plants at present are located mostly 
in small cities where a satisfactory system of distribution had not 
previously been developed. Milk producers supplying the larger 
cities usually have organized cooperative associations for the purpose 
of acting as agents for their members in making contracts for the 

1 Resigned. 
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