WELLINGTON MILK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 2, 27 September 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON MILK

BOARD OF TRADE'S COMMENT. "The price of milk has an obvious connection with the prices of meat, butter, and cheese," says the Board of Trade in its annual report.. "If the farmer who is supplying the town with milk* can got a< better return by disposing of his cows to the butcher or the freezing company, or by supplying a butter or,- a cheese factory with milk, he w.ill probably do so, nnd a period of high prices for these products is likely, to result in a reduction of the available milk supply for consumption in the cities. The returns of the farmer supplying milk to a city are very laboriously earned. It must r.ot be forgotten that 'he has to work every day of the year for very long hours._ The statutory requirements as to sanitation of his dairy and the quality of his milk are considered by him particularly onerous, and the board was informed that numbers of farmers had abandoned the business of supplying milk to the city of Wellington because of these conditions. ' "The Imperial purchase of cheese for tho season at SJd. per -pound, and of meat at the prices already quoted, and the record prices of butter which have obtained this f.eason, set a standnrd for the price of milk. The farmer milfcvendor considers that he should get in summer a price equivalent to what lie would obtain by supplying milk to a butter or a cheese factory plus Id. per gallon to cover his extra disability; and that in winter it costs him at least 75 per cent, more to produce milk than in summer, and he therefore wants a COT' respondingly higher winter price sufficient to compensate him for the extra cost of production." >