Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-06
THE PRICE OF MILK
Difference Between What the Farmer Gets
and the Consumer Pays.
Risks Run by the Dealers In Carrying
on Their usiness-COmplaints
by Purchasers.

The man who gets up early enough in the
morning and strolls through the city streets
before the cable and horse cars begin to
| run will see numerous wagons speeding
along in a spasmodic way. stopping at in
! tervals to let the driver jump out, turn the
mouth Of shining tin can into measure
| more or less battered, and run with the
| latter to a doorway to transfer Its contents
| to a bucket, pitcher or jar that has been
| set out the night before. AS a rule, the
| man looks like a farmers hand" and the
| wagon will probably bear some such rural
| legend as the Breezy Farm Dairy" or the
| Glover Fields Cream and Milk Company"
| but the chances are that the individual
| never sees the country unless he goes on
| an excursion and that tie vehicle has
never known what suburban mud Is.
Buy From the Farmers.
| Most of the wagons end men, despite
| their truly rural appearance, are a part of
| the business equipment of the hundred and
| more milk dealers who I've their establish
| ments scattered all over the city and who
| are not required by their business to see
! COW outside of the chromos that sometimes
| decorate their business offices. They buy
| the Tactical fluid dispensed to Washing
| tonians from farmers living contiguous 20
| the city in the District and MARYLAND and
d.,
are at the trains to receive the cans brought
| in. There is rattle and clatter and anima-
ton when the milk trains get in. They
have come down UP through Maryland
and Virginia in the gray Of the morning.
stopping at stations to take on the cans,
and 1t is long before breakfast time when
they arrive. 1t was dark when the farmer
drove to the station and deposited his
quota, and the cans he put on the cars are
usually the result of the night and early
morning milking mixed together.
Widely Varying Prices.
The price paid for this milk to producers
and that paid to the men who sell 1t by the
pint, quart or gallon to city consumers
vary widely, and recent communications to
The Star have commented upon this fact
The farmers, after paying from 2 to 2la
cents per gallon freight, sell the milk to
the city dealers at II cents gallon. II
the milk Is sour, curdled or not up to
the standard set by the men who receive
1t in bulk, the farmers do not get paid Tor
it. The Washington dealers, after puylns
the milk at IL cents gallon, sell 1t TO con-
sumers at 80 cents a gallon. To very large
customers there Is a slight reduction, out
such patrons are few, as those who use
great amount Of milk usually purchase
direct from the farmers, with whom they
make yearly contracts.
1t will be seen, therefore, that the city
dealers charge only a little less than three
times as much as they pay for the mix 10
these who purchase 1t from them. Not
only do the farmers complain, but there is
general objection on the part OF house
keepers to this charge. They are. however,
powerless to resist 1t, as the small amount
each person is compelled to pay prevents
anything like cooperation for resistance.
The amount derived from these alleged
overcharges, though small as to each in
dividual, is very large in the aggregate. as
can be readily realized when 1t Is con-
sidered how many thousands Of gallons OF
milk are daily sold and consumed in this
city
The Other Side to the Controversy.
There is, of course. another side to the
milk controversy opposing that taken by
the aggrieved farmers and housekeepers.
and the milkman's case has been clearly
stated to The Star, as follows:
THE small consumer of milk is tempted
to complain at price four times great
per gallon as that received by the producer,
and the wholesale producer in like manner
feels that he ought to get more than one
fourth of the price paid by the small con-
sumner. The producer and the consumer
could confer and arrange mutually better
terms, provided the consumer wanted the
product, but, in general, the producer wants
to sell by the can at the farm, and the
consumer wants to buy by the pint at his
own door.
The principal part of the cost to the
small consumer pointed out some years
ago by the late Dom Piatt is in the
pense of distribution. In present condi-
Washington which do not daily distribute
more than twenty-five gallons; that is, 100
quarts or 200 pints. This requires the
maintenance of a horse, wagon and driver,
with a set of cans, measures and bottles
and a supply of ice. securing sales of
cents worth at a time. Those retailing
greater amounts must increase their equip
ment, often in a greater ratio than the in
crease of receipts. The dealers must lose
about half gallon of waste in measuring
out a ten-gallon can by pnts. They have
their losses through delinquent purchasers,
their postage and cost of colectio like
dealers in other commodities, and milk re-
mains sweet but a few hours at best.
mo immediate remedy is in sight for the
waste of force in milk delivery that be-
gins at haf-past in the morning and re-
quires the constant crossing and recross-
ing of routes by different retailers. A
thorough system of inspection would eX-
clude those who sell poor milk, and tend
to diminish the number of men, wagons
and horses necessary to distribute the sup
ply Of the community to an extent justi-
flying its cost and giving fuller protection
to public health. Such inspection would
prevent the dangers which accumulate till
suspicion Of the dealers prompts eXamina
ton and that have much to do with the
excessive subdivision of the retail milk
trade.
ANY man who Is tempted to become re-
tail milk dealer by the enormous percent
age of profit represented by the difference
between the net price to the producer and
the extreme Cost 10 the ltttll coilsuilSl, eA-
Guiding all cost of delivery, will do well to
look up the history Of an effort within
few years which a joint stock associa-
ton of farmers made here to improve their
receipts l am credibly Informed that the
investment of $4,000 was a total loss, and
that the producers did not secure more
than cents a gallon for their milk, and
during portions of the year no more than
5 cents a gallon. This movement had
little effect on the general conditions that
most citizens d } rot know that 1t existed
Falling or in Sugar Imports.
Worthington c. Ford, chief of the bureau
of statistics, has returns on the imports of
sugar at six of the leading ports Of the
United States receiving that article. The