MILK-PLANT OPERATION. 
29 
Utilize exhaust steam whenever possible to heat water for use in the plant; also to 
heat boiler-feed water, and to heat the building. 
Avoid waste of ice. Leaving ice on cement floors in workroom or exposed to drafts 
causes unnecessary waste. 
Keep doors of refrigerator room closed. Do not work in refrigerator more than neces- 
sary, and do not leave the lights burning. 
Eliminate breakage of glass as much as possible. Bottles broken at the fillers cause 
the loss not only of the bottles, but of considerable milk, often more than a bottleful. 
Do not throw away the broken glass if it can be sold to glass blowers. 
Avoid extra labor by convenient arrangement of rooms and equipment, and by use 
of labor-saving devices, when practicable. 
. Avoid as much as possible agitation of the milk in handling. 
MILK-BOTTLE LOSSES. 
The loss of bottles at milk plants is an important item. Estimates 
of the large dealers in five cities were averaged, and, according to 
their figures, the average life of a glass bottle was 22J trips. The 
results are seen in Table 8. 
Table 8. 
-Estimated life of glass milk bottles as given 
in five cities. 
some of the principal dealers 
City. 
Number 
ofdealers. 
Average 
trips. 
Varia- 
tion. 
3 
8 
13 
10 
6 
12.60 
18.00 
28.50 
20.80 
21.60 
8 to 18 
4 to 50 
10 to 50 
Philadelphia 
6 to 30 
8 to 40 
40 
22.25 
4 to 50 
Bottles of various sizes cost (1922) in large lots, on the average, 
6 cents each, so that if a plant uses 10,000 bottles and has to replace 
them every 22.25 days, the expense is $26.96 a day. 
Some dealers now charge their family customers for all bottles 
not returned and the custom of charging store customers for the 
bottle is quite common. A ticket is usually given the store customer 
when he pays for the bottle, and the amount paid is returned upon 
the surrender of the ticket and a bottle. Where a bottle is returned 
each time a bottle of milk is taken away no ticket or charge is re- 
quired. A special bottle is often used for the store trade, and in that 
case no ticket is required. 
One of the means used by dealers in many localities to reduce the 
loss from stolen or misplaced bottles is the establishment of milk- 
bottle exchanges. These exchanges are in operation in many of the 
larger cities, where they serve as a sort of clearing house, mislaid 
bottles being collected and returned to their owners. The establish- 
ments of the milk dealers are visited regularly and all bottles belong- 
ing to other dealers are brought to the exchange headquarters, where 
they are washed, sterilized, and sorted. Usually very little or noth- 
ing is paid by the exchange for bottles collected in this way, but 
sometimes dealers bring in their stray bottles, the price they receive 
varying from one-fourth cent to 1 cent for each bottle. Bottles 
brought in by junk dealers, ash men, or other persons are also paid 
for. The city dumps are visited by employees of the exchange and 
many bottles are obtained from this source. In one city where the 
exchange kept a record of the number of bottles thus recovered, 
