The Washington herald., 1907-11-01
MILK GOES Up TO-DAY
Advances from EighttO Nine
Cents a Quart.
HIGHER COST JUSTIFIEs RISE
;. +. Thornton. of the Department of
Agriculture, SuStains Contention
of Dealers that Increase in Feed
nnd Labor Necessitates Present
ActiOn-Cost More Than Doubled.

The price of milk advances to-day
from S to 9 cents quart. and all patrons
Of the dairymen who have been selling
at S cents nave been notified of the
raise
That the contention of the dealers.
both retail and wholesale, that the price
OF feed for cows has gone up so high
that raise is necessary, is evident from
a compilation made by s. Edwin Thorn
ton, assistant editor of the publications
for tile Department of Agriculture. Ac-
cording to his figures. the price of milk.
II kept up TO a corresponding ratio with
the increase in the cost OF forage, would
be l6 cents quart. In discussing the
matter yesterday with a representative
Of The Washington Herald, Mr. Thorn
ton said
The large space that milk has occu-
pied in the newspapers recently indicates
that it is a subject of great popular in-
teTesL Recently the discussion has
veered around from the sanitary phase
of the question 10 the matter OF cost
and price. Consumers are, Of course.
averse to an increase in price while the
dairymen insist that an increase IS not
only justified. but is a practical neces-
sity
A desire TO know the real facts re-
garding the cost of producing milk led
me 10 investigate the prices of feed. as
that is the principal element of cost
The results seem 10 fully bear out the
dairymen. BY examining market reports
and securing data from one of the lead
ing feed dealers Of Washington I made
up a table of retail prices OF feed cover
ing period of ten years also worked
out the cost per day of feeding a COW
a moderately heavy ration, and the cor
responding value OF milk per quart"
His table follows
Washington Retail Prices of Feed.
OCtuhl-.
Bran. per tou............ S.iO Ss8 $3.50 $500
to-n, per barrel----.---.- lsi 2t5 $50 40
Oats. Per bIsltl.......... IS .a5 is %
Cost of feed for one co.'s
Corresponding value or
milk uer quart......... 20 10 B 6
1T viii be noticed. continued Mr..
Thornton, that the prices of corn. bran.
and oats have much more than doubled
in ten years. They have increased about
so per cent since 1907 and nearly 30 per
cent since 1904. and there appears to be
no prospect of permanent relief.
The figures on cost of feeding "a COW
are based on a ration of pounds OF bran.
10 pounds Of corn. pounds Of cotton
seed meal. and as much roughage as she
VIII eat. 1t viii be seen that the cost
has more than doubled since 1887.
''The figures for corresponding value of
milk are worked out Dy-the rule OF
three. If milk were worth cents in
lSS5-and that was the standard pnce-and
it had risen with the cost of feed, milk
would have sold for 1J cents per quart
in 1900. Is cents in 1894 and 10 cents the
past month. Even If we suppose that 6
cents quart was "a fair price in 1887, it
would be II cents now.
"Of course, although feed is the prin-
cipal element i'm the cost of milk other
things enter into The problem. notably,
the wages of labor, which have increased
fully 80 per cent in the period referred 20.
Horses and horse feed have more than
doubled in price. Other expenses of the
dairymen have increased more or less.
From the foregoing. it is evident that even
if the producing dairyman sells has milk
for or 10 cents quart the increase
viii not be large enough TO meet the pro-
pOrtOuate increase in cost
Nj ThOTutOns statement bears out the
contentious of the wholesalers. whose ac-
tion in raising the price of milk 10 dealers
was responsible for the action of the re-
tailers in advancing the price TO the con-
sumers.