326 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Our worthy vice president also wins second in the scoring contest 

 and third place in the whole milk class with a score of 97%. 



The Chairman : We will now listen to Mr. W. C. Taber, of New 

 York City, on ' ' The Past and Present Methods of Quoting the New 

 York Butter Markets." 



PAST AND PRESENT METHODS OF QUOTING THE NEW YORK 

 BUTTER MARKETS. 



W. C. TABEE, NEW YOEK PRODUCE EEVIEW, NEW YOEK. 



Mr. President and Members of the Iowa State Dairy Association: If 

 I understand correctly the invitation of your secretary, it was not that I 

 should attempt an exhaustive discussion of the relative merits of any 

 particular methods of quoting the butter market, but rather to talk to 

 you in the most conversational manner as to how values have been, and 

 are now, established in the great market of New York, where two to two 

 and a quarter million tubs of butter are sold annually. 



Permit me, however, to suggest that you are vitally interested in the 

 matter of quotations — how they are made, by whom, and their reliability 

 at all times — as they affect the relations between the producers and dis- 

 tributers of a very considerable part of the butter product of this country. 



The old idea that quotations of any article should represent as nearly 

 as possible the real selling value has lost none of its force, and whenever 

 there is any deviation from that path the situation should be so fully 

 explained that no one may be deceived; and even then I question the 

 wisdom of making merely a settling price for the convenience of the 

 trade, which at times will be widely at variance with the rates that buy- 

 ers would willingly pay over the trier. 



It may be interesting to trace back a little of the history of market 

 reporting in New York. In 1855 the American Agriculturist began pub- 

 lishing a brief report of the produce markets under the direction of Solon 

 Robinson, who made a personal canvass of the market once a week. A 

 few years later the work was transferred to Clarkson Taber, who enlarged 

 the scope of the reports, and shortly afterwards started a similar depart- 

 ment for the Tribune. In 1858 Benjamin Turner began the publication 

 of the Producer's Price Current, issuing one edition a week, and almost 

 from the start this little sheet found its way into produce circles far and 

 near. As the years passed buyers and sellers alike came to look upon 

 these quotations as a clear index of market conditions, and they were 

 sent to shippers in all parts of the country. In 1882 the Price Current 

 was made a daily publication and the work of reporting the markets 

 passed into the hands of younger men who had been in training, and the 

 high standing of the market report was not only maintained, but because 

 of the accuracy of the prices quoted therein it became the basis upon which 

 a very considerable part of the wholesale business was done. The con- 

 venience of using these figures for settlement with the creameries, as 

 well as with the buyers who were distributing the product to the consum- 

 ing trade, was recognized and in this easy way of doing business may be 



