City Delivery.—In villages and small cities the milk supply is still to a large extent in the hands of farmers who come to town early in the morning peddling their milk, often at considerable waste of time for horse and man. Or a number of peddlers go over the same route so that it takes a dozen wagons to cover a town where three or four could do it.
As long as there was no efficient regulation as to price and quality such waste was perhaps unavoidable, as competition on the part of the producers and distributors was the only means of protection for the consumers. But lately state and municipal control is being exercised to such an extent as to largely eliminate the danger of poor milk and exorbitant prices. Further development of organized delivery systems so much to be desired for sanitary as well as for economical reasons, may be looked for as soon as normal conditions return after the close of the war. The delivery of milk is one of the things that in the interest of public health must be under the strictest official control, and co-operation between farmers and consumers is the logical system for elimination of unnecessary expenses of distribution and for prompt and satisfactory service. Their interests are or should be identical and both classes are hurt by inefficient and wasteful delivery.
In the large cities there has grown up an industry which largely monopolizes the milk supply and which until lately was powerful enough to dictate prices and conditions both for producers and consumers. Several attempts have been made from time to time by farmers to combine to regulate prices and dictate the terms to the middlemen. Such attempts have, however, invariably failed as long as they were built on false economic principles and prompted by selfish interests only. No farmers’ association can be strong enough to ignore the law of supply and demand, and it is only quite recently that the Dairymen’s League has succeeded in influencing the market by taking into consideration the actual cost of production of milk as worked out by the agricultural colleges, and fixing the price on a scientific basis. There is one other element entering into the causes on which the price to the consumers depends, namely, Transportation, and while municipal boards of health are looking after the sanitary conditions and prevention of adulteration, State and Federal authorities are stepping in as moderators or arbitrators to reconcile the interests of the Producers, the Railroad Companies, the Distributors and the Consumers. The next step in the development will no doubt be towards full co-operation between producers and consumers and, to a large extent, elimination of the “middlemen.”
It should not be forgotten, however, that while the much abused middlemen in time past have been able to dictate terms and prices and have often abused the privilege; they have at the same time used their influence and power to improve the milk supply. As the supply of oil and gasoline has been perfected and cheapened by the all-powerful Standard Oil Co. as a monopoly crushing all competition, so the “Milk Trust” has improved the distribution of milk and has built up the magnificent sanitary plants in which milk is handled, pasteurized, bottled and distributed in a way that might not have been possible without the monopoly. It has served a good purpose, but has at the same time acquired such power that official control has become necessary for the protection of producers and consumers alike, and the time may be near when these two classes will combine and take the matter into their own hands so that the distribution may be done at actual cost.
Milk station in the country where milk is received from the farmers to be shipped to the city
Milk Stations are plants erected in dairy sections in the country either by the city milk supply houses or by co-operating farmers, where the milk is delivered and handled so as to make it ready for shipment to the city. As in the creamery and the cheese factory, the milk is carefully examined and, if it is not sweet and pure, it is rejected and sent back to the farm. Any impure flavor remains in the cover for some time and is easily detected by smelling of the cover as soon as it is removed from the can.
A sample is taken and put aside for the Babcock test and perhaps another for the Fermentation test. Each farmer’s milk is weighed in the Weigh Can and run through a cheese-cloth strainer. The further treatment varies in different plants. The milk may simply be cooled by running it over a cold water or brine cooler and placing it in shipping cans in the refrigerator or in ice water until the milk-train comes along to pick up the cans. Or it may be clarified by running it through a centrifugal machine, the same as a separator, in which, however, cream and milk are not separated, but impurities are thrown out by the centrifugal force and deposited on the wall of the bowl, and the purified milk may then be pasteurized and bottled before being shipped to the city.
Receiving milk at the milk station