of the
dairymen's response to the patriotic appeal to maintain production,
but our supply and consumption of milk are still far below what they
should be.

To increase the quantity in the country the price of milk must be low
enough for people to afford it, but high enough to keep the producer
and distributer in the business. The question of a fair price is a
difficult one. The cost of feed has gone up, labor is scarce and dear,
but further economies in both production and distribution are still
possible. This past winter the Food Administration and the Dairy
Division of the Department of Agriculture have assisted many local
commissions in determining fair milk prices and pointing out economies
all along the line of the milk business.

It is most unfortunate that ignorance of the value of milk makes
people particularly sensitive to a change in its price. When it goes
up even a cent a quart, many cut down their consumption, while a
considerably larger advance in the price of meat will make little
difference in the amount bought.

If diminished use of milk continues, dairymen may go out of business
and permanent harm be done, both to us and to those dependent on
us abroad. A factory may close down and when the need comes reopen
immediately, but if a cow is killed it takes practically three years
to replace her.

The milk we have should be used as effectively as possible. The most
economical way for a nation to use its milk so as to get the benefit
of all the food in it, is, of course, as whole milk, or evaporated
or dried whole milk. The next most economical way is in the form of
whole-milk cheese, since all but the whey is used in it.

Cream and butter are much less economical unless all the skim milk
is used. As 41 per cent of our milk-supply goes to make butter, we
have large quantities of skim milk containing as much protein, it is
estimated, as all the beef we eat.

At present we feed the largest part of this to animals or actually
throw it away. Since the cottage-cheese drive of the Department
of Agriculture, an increasing amount of it is being made into
cottage-cheese--a palatable and useful meat substitute. It can, of
course, be used as a beverage or in cooking. Whey also has many food
uses. Buttermilk, too, is justly popular and healthful. Skim milk is
not a substitute for whole milk for children.

Cream, valuable food though it is, is also extravagant in its use of
milk. It takes five quarts of milk t