The Marketing of Whole Milk

Abstract

THE recent disputes concerning the price of milk have again shown how difficult the problem has become under modern conditions, more especially in the large towns. The farmer is no longer able to take his milk direct to the consumer except in the case of a village or small town, and there has arisen a class of dealers or distributors who occupy the place of the middleman. Some of these distributors are large companies with the command of much capital, and their powerful organisations have led to something very like monopoly. The producers, on the other hand, have also organised themselves, and a struggle between the two parties has recently ended. In the volume under notice, this question as it appears in the United States is very completely analysed, and Prof. Erdman, who is an economist, has dealt with it more fully and critically than has previously been attempted. After discussing the peculiar position occupied by milk as a foodstuff, and the regulations which the public health authorities of all civilised countries have imposed, the author takes marketing and distribution, instances what has been done in the past and states the present position. The part played by the middleman and dealer is made clear, and the rise of collective bargaining is illustrated by the action of the Orange County farmers in their successful fight with the New York dealers in 1883, which may be regarded as the beginning of what has now become the general practice in the large American cities. The strike—or better the boycott-has been the weapon of the producers, and experience has shown that it is two-edged, owing to the difficulty which the farmer has in disposing of his milk —a perishable commodity—except by making it into cheese or butter or, at worst, by feeding it to stock, all of which courses are seldom remunerative. It is made clear that the producers must also submit to regulations governing their combined action, otherwise the results are doomed to failure.

The Marketing of Whole Milk.

By Dr. H. E. Erdman. (The Citizen's Library: Marketing Series.) Pp. xvi + 333. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 21s. net.