22 BULLETIN" 1, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tional answers, 4. The conditional answers included 3 which 
stated that the business was profitable only part of the time, and 1 
which stated that it would be profitable if the markets for the prod- 
uct were larger. These answers can not be considered as favorable 
to the profitable production of certified milk, so a regrouping would 
give: Profitable, 37; unprofitable, 37. 
Out of the 37 dairies which are classed as profitable there are 15 
which state that the business is not very profitable or only fairly so. 
There is very little doubt that certified milk can be produced and sold 
at a fair profit, as this is being done by many dairies at the present 
time. However, the large number of unprofitable dairies shows that 
there is need for a radical change in the methods of many of the farms 
which are producing this class of milk. It is unquestionably the fact 
that many certified-milk producers can lower the price of production 
by applying better business principles to their operations, and this 
will undoubtedly result in a swinging of the balance from loss to 
profit on their books. 
OBSTACLES TO THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF CERTIFIED MILK. 
To support the statement that some certified dairies are run under 
lax business methods, it is only necessary to point to a few figures 
received by this department. For instance, one dairy reports that the 
retail price of milk is 20 cents a quart, the average bacterial count is 
4,000 per cubic centimeter, and that the business is not profitable and it 
would require a retail price of 25 cents a quart to make it so. Another 
dairy states that the retail price is only 12 cents, the bacterial count 
3.000 (less than in the case of the other dairy), and that the business 
is profitable. There is a difference of 8 cents a quart in favor of the 
first dair} T , and yet with that advantage it is unable to conduct the 
business at a profit. 
Many certified-milk producers have erected extremely elaborate 
buildings, the interest and depreciation on which are so high that they 
form a considerable item to be charged against the cost of production. 
The interest and depreciation on a simple, inexpensive certified plant 
is estimated to amount to at least 6 cents a gallon, or 1J cents a quart. 
In some of the more elaborate plants, where much money has been 
spent for ornamental equipment, the interest and depreciation would 
be much higher. Experience in the past has proved that the produc- 
tion of clean milk is not dependent upon expensive equipment so 
much as upon care and vigilance concerning the methods of produc- 
tion. It is a well-known fact in business that a manufacturing plant 
can not afford to turn out such a small' quantity of goods that the 
interest and depreciation on the factory will be too heavy a tax on 
the goods sold. Applying this same principle to dairying, it is almost 
impossible to see where some of the small dairies can afford to operate 
