Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-22
THE FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF MILK

PRODUCTION AND pl (Written Specially For The Bulletin)
 The biggest milk distributing com pany in the laiggtst city near ms has just-three days before this writing announces 8 fresh increase in the price of milk. HeEeafter t is to be nineteen cents a quart to .he private consumer insthat city. This IS the sec ond increase by that company in thaS town within month. One Of the local newspapers, n chronicling the two advances, added:
 Tn spite cf them farmers are said to be receiving less than the cost of production. Distributors pay $3.s1 per hundred rounds of three per cent. milk, which officials of the I1airymen' ; League say ie 22 cents less than the cost of productton.' In the meantime. dealers and dairynfen say they have been selling milk at. loss for some time" in the city to which have referred. ''Dealers,''. too, you'll ob- serve.
 The dairyrnan asserts that, it costs him g cents more than $3.3l q hun dred pounds to produce milk The dealers who, at 19 cents 2 Chart, are getting s9.50 q hundred pounds --"a pint's a pound, the world around"- asserts that they sell at a loss. handling of the milk 4whica tl19- gay the farmer only s3.s1 for producing :. The dealers point out that they. have to pay for. teams or trucks to deliver tho milk.
 Well. the dairyman has .te keep teams or trucks, often both, in his business. i- --@ -
 The dealers point out that cost of feed and supplies and rates of wages have advanced greatly. .
 Well, the cost of feed and supplies for the dairyman and the rate Of wag- cs he has to pay have advancel in equal ratio.
 The dealers again point out that they are hampered and pllt to extra expense by the rules anl regulations of a state board of health and a city health officer.
 Well isn't the dairy farmer tired and pastered by a lot of often finicky technicalities imposed on hihi. by the same rather arbitrary powers?
 For every excuse which the dealers can find for jumping the price of milk a cent a quart to the consumer, the dairyman has equal reason for jumping it's price two cents quart to them.
 No, gentlemen, the very statement of the facts is conviction and con- demnation for the whole milk dis tributing system. When e eommodi- ty of such universal use and necessi- ty as milk is so handled and managed l1y organized business that its mere distribution ia made to cost the ulti- mate consumer more than five ninths of it's price, as against less than four ninths paid for the milk itself. then if is perfectly clear that the handling is mis- handling and the management is mis management.
 The big company asserts that # makes only q fraction of . cent profit on a quartz quarter on an eighth of O. cent-and sets forth long columns Of intricate figures to baek up it's claim. Perhaps these figures are cor rect. I don't know Nor do care. II they are correct they ill themselves constitute the. proof and certainty oi lnismanagement. A so-calied busi- ness organization which cant handle such a local product as milk for less than the original cost of the milk, is it's own incontrovertibie witness to its own incapacity. and unfitness for itS job.
 I do not say nor do mean that it's individual members are incapable ol unfit. They may be exceedingly bright persons, for all know. and even we'll meaning, taking them as ur.ts. | , Brt the system of which they art psrtc is proven pitifully Inefficient, ant sbe ryheel-train in which they are cogs needlessly cunbrous And costly l by thoir own assertions.
 If acute and trained ou5iness meI ] can't do better and make 9 bettel showing, it is time that they retired 1 in disorder and let their places b taken by more desirable citizens! As have said before, arr not {: 1 lairynnap. I keep one COW. because | find it cheaper to produce my owI milk and cream and. butter and cot tage cheese than to buy them. This i because l raise my own le;fers; fec them on my own home raised forag or in my own pastures: and take car Of them myself. Once in while. whel milk is plenty with us, we sell som to daiiyless neighbors We get, now eight cents quart. That is the pre-
 vailinG price in the small farmins tOW1l WItcTe 1 .ING--tilS pfACo Glidf cd by those with real dairies and regular ''route''
 The. city of which I have spokel
 lies only twenty five miles away ove a good state road--about m hour ain a half's time by autotruck To sa
 that it actually costs more 10 haul fiv
 hundred pounds of milk to that cit
 and ladle it out to buyers t;fan it cost
 for all the labor and risk and feed an
 labor. etc. etc, involved in the pro
 duction of that milk is to talk ute nonsense.
 If delaying and l1ampering barrier
 or costly and irritating tol!~gates hay been erected across that road, eithe 6y impra etical Legislatures or crank health boards or trade customs or bus iness greed. they can be aad should | ? abolished.
 My own interest in the matter
 only that of a farmer talking in be : half of other farmers. As has bee , l q I Iofv