This report provides a brief description of the marketing of fresh (or fluid) milk, of the cost of performing the various marketing operations, and of variations in these costs and in the price spread between farmers and consumers.

This bulletin provides a summary of several statistical series, relating to farm-to-retail prices spreads and marketing charges for farm products which have been developed in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and published since 1935.

The material presented here represents comprehensive revision and expansion of series which have been published in the past, dealing with marketing changes and price spreads between farmers and consumers of food products, and includes a number of new series and comparisons.