VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 35 



trade. We can put our butter in the English market in as 

 good a condition as the Danish and Swedish markets do. It 

 is the pride and boast of Denmark and Sweden that they send 

 butter to England free from preservatives, and that is one rea- 

 son why Denmark stands at the head of British markets to- 

 day, confidence in the character of the goods. The same is 

 true of Canada. That is one of the reasons Canadian cheese 

 stands at the head in the British markets, and why Canadian 

 butter is getting ahead. The Canadian government stands 

 behind and guarantees the butter and cheese which are export- 

 ed to England. I believe our only hope for competing with 

 Denmark and Canada is to take the same ground. Send an 

 absolutely pure article, of high quality, free from preserva- 

 tives of any kind. It is policy to do so. We should take 

 pride in it and make a point of competing on this ground. 

 This is reason enough why we should not use preservatives 

 without discussing the question of whether it is harmful or 

 not. If we do not need them why use them? We do not need 

 butter color. When we send butter in the dead of winter to 

 the southern markets we do not need butter color when, they 

 would rather have it without. It is exactly the same thing: 

 with preservatives. 



Mrs. Ware. What kinds of packages are desirable in send- 

 ing butter across the water? 



Maj. Alvord. If the butter is good enough, it will sell itself 

 in any sort of a package. The British market will buy good 

 butter if put up in any package, without reference to style or 

 character. Nevertheless, when entering a new market we are 

 compelled to satisfy the tastes and preferences of that market. 



In years past so much poor butter has gone to England in 

 the tub form, what that market calls the Welsh tub, but what 

 is the American creamery tub, that the appearance of that 

 package, the tub, has come to be associated with poor butter; 

 so that if you show them a tub of American butter, that is all 

 they wish to know. So, in our experience, we found it advis- 

 able to seek for a package against which the English were 

 not prejudiced. We tried the Australian cubical package, a 

 square box holding a cubic foot of butter. We found a practi- 

 cal objection to that box,, it did not strip well ; we could not 

 turn the contents out easily. The almost universal practice in 

 England is to turn the butter out of the package on to a mar- 

 ble or oak slab or table and to leave it free from all protec- 

 tion and without ice. Ice and refrigerators are unknown in 

 the retail markets of Great Britain. Of course they want a 

 package that the butter will slip out of easily. Then over 

 there there is a universal demand for parchment linings for 

 boxes. The cubical package was not easily emptied in that 



