Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — The Butter Supply. [ARTICLE]

The Butter Supply.

The butter supply of this country is not fully up to- the demand. At least the supply of good butter is not sufficient to meet ihe wants of the people, and the result is that a vast amount of butter is used which must be very injurious to health , as well as exceedingly obnoxious to good taste. A recent experiment has demonstrated the fact that butter may .be successfully shipped from South America to this country, and our Eastern cities expect a lively trade to be built ere long. The Brooklyn Argus thus refers to the manner in which the. butter shipped was packed, and this condition in which it arrived: .... “ A sample of butter, packed in tin, was lately received in New lork, which had been* seventeen months put U P- an d had passed by the sea from Denmark to London, thence to Bolivia, and lastly to New York. The packing and transit of batter was an experiment, the success of which depended on the non-corrosion ol

the case—which latter, together with the coplents, arrived-in New York in perfect condition. Produce merchants are of the opinion that this novel way of packipg butter, which, by the way, is said to be both cheaper and more convenient to handle than wood, may give rise to an extensive trade in the article with South America, as we should lmve a great advantage over Europeans in point of distance.” Should this result in supplying our markets with good butter to such an extent that.a bad article can find no sale, only at reduced rates, the people would Certainly have cause to he thankful. Nearly, if not quite, one-half that which is marketed in this country is- Unfit to eat. The globules of the butter are in a state of rottenness when the butter is made, and the whole mass is offensive to taste and smell, and injurious to health. To correct this evil and compel butter-makers to learn how to make a good article, perhaps a just discrimination in prices would be'most effective, but with a limited supply this method cannot be successfully adopted. Should the importation of butter from South America prove profitable, consumers may be better able to make such discrimination against bad butter as will render it profitable for manufacturers to make a good article. It is not profitable, perhaps, for formers who keep a to make the necessary preparations for manufacturing a first-class article of butter. This is especially the case when a poor article will command the same price that is paid for a good article. If farmers would club together in the same manner adopted for the manufacture of cheese, each factory having a distinct brand, the market might be supplied with the sweetest and best of butter; but so long as the sources of supply are as now we must our markets to be flooded with butter which is unfit to be taken into any dwelling-house. —Toledo Blade.