The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-11-15
NEW ENGLAND AND MILK.
lRv Gaorge french. }


New England ought to solve what Is
called the milk problem, but She only
compIicates it. Milk is one OF the
great staples of the six states, but IN
stead Of being growing industry II Is
diminishing It has been so thor
ourhIv commercialized that there Is
now In it but little money and scarce
w no interest 1t has immense pos
sibilities. Why is 1t that it is impos-
sible now to buy a pound or that me
old-fashioned butter that was mace
by hand from cream raised" on milk
sset'' in big shallow pansf Why is it
that appreciation of this kind OF but
ter. and almost knowledge of 1t, has
zone out of the minds of nearly all
men and women? 1t is a fact thar
moderns do not know what good but-
ter is. and it is the fault of the far
mers that that knowledge has pretty
nearly gone out of the world GOOD
cheese is rapidly becoming a mem
ory. Not long ago complained to
one of the biggest grocers in Boston
that I could not get fuh-crean1
cheese He at once acquiesced.
..There is none made said he You
can't buy a pound of 'full-cream
cheese anywhere, unless possible from
some farmer way down on the cape,
and that would be by accident.
why? said I. We'll, SAID the
man. At do not Just know. There is
u
make more off their milk If they skim
IL. sell the cream and then sell the
cheese They are getting as much
for the skimmed-milk cheese as they
did for the real full-crean: why
should they not skim their milk? Con-
sumers have been trained to accept
the new kind, and there are very few
protests About the same is true Of
butter. People have become accus-
toned to the creamery variety They
At 10
SO much betteri
farmer who had made quite
good living. and had money in the
bank, had always sold his milk TO
the contractors who buy it of the
farmers and sell it in the cities, said
that he had never kept books. He
never checked up the accounts or the
contractor who had had his milk for
years He just took the checks as
they came, and felt that he was lucky
to be getting some real money on the
farm. This man is one extreme. The
other is represented by the few men
who run their farms as businesses and
know what they spend and what they
receive They do not sell to the con-
tractors. They build up select trades
and create trademarks for their pro-
duct, and at the same time. provide for
a profit for their farming operations.
The New England producer OF milk
has got to learn the commercial les
son that it is as much the part or the
good business man to create ana d1s-
cipIine demand to I'LL the crude
and differentiated demand. Have
not the retailers of milk, and of gro
ceries and meats shown them how 1T
is done? How else does 1T happen
that we have tamely submitted to
taking packages that weigh from IL
to II ounces, and pay from 10 to SO
per cent. more for them, in place OF
the full pound we used to have? This
method has been grated onto many
products, such as sausage, bacon, fish,
J cereals, and many common products
> that we buy, or used to buy, by the
pound The writer used to buy a
high class bacon for % cents a pound
package, when pork was the highest
it has been for many years. Pork
soon went down, but the bacon went
up and up, and the package shrunk
and shrunk, until now we get about
10 ounces of bacon and pay S5 cents
for it. How much advance Is this?
Fifty per cent. in price and nearly