There are two limitations on the data in the study. In many
instances, regional or national data were used to show relevant
trends in both production and utilization of fluid milk and milk
products. Discrepancies should exist only to the extent that these
data or the selected months for which they were collected fail to
portray Florida conditions. A second limitation arose due to the
refusal of a relatively few firms to provide all or a part of the
information requested. In the presentation, appropriate notations
are made in tabulations which do not include all firms or total
product volumes in a particular milk marketing area or other classi-
fications.


 Review of Literature

 The many aspects of dairy marketing have provided a wide and
diverse field for economics research throughout the United States.
Workers in the principal dairy states in the Northeast, Midwest and
Central regions have published the largest number of reports9/
During the past ten years several valuable economic studies of problems
in dairy marketing in the South have been reported.

 Very little dairy marketing research was reported in Florida
during the 1950's or at any other time in the past. McPherson and
Luckey,.ia/: using data from the 1939 and 1949 United States censuses
of agriculture, reported trends in the production of milk in Florida
by counties. No attempt was made to identify and relate market and
supply areas. They did anticipate many of the changes which have since
occurred in the technology of milk production and marketing. However,
due to the insufficiency of available data, they could not project
the probable effects of such changes.

 The market structure and degree of competition among dairy
processing firms in twenty-six counties in South Florida were
reported by Brownll/ in 1956. Three publications by Greene,



 9 For a bibliography of this material see George n. Metts,
Marketing Handbook for Michigan Dairt Products (East Lansing, Michigan:
Michigan State University, Agricultural Experiment Station Special
Bulletin 430, November 1960) pp. 35, 36, 48, 57.

 O/W. K. McPherson and R. F. Luckey, Jr., Some Trends and
 Characteristics of the Dairy Industry in Florida (Gainesville,
 Florida: Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations Bulletin 539,
 March 1959).

 11/E. E. Brown, "An Appraisal of and Recommendations for
 Increasing the Degree of Competition in Florida's Dairy Industry"
 (unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Agricultural Economics,
 University of Florida, June 1956).