HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 17 



disturbed, a tree may be planted over it. Under these condi- 

 tions it turns deep red and is highly prized. The owner's wealth 

 is computed by the quantity of butter he has stored up in 

 this manner. 



"Butter was enjoyed as a food by comparatively few people 

 in. its early history; tho<se who did so use it seldom ate it 

 fresh. The general practice was to melt it before storing 

 away, and instead of being a spread it was employed to enrich 

 cooked foods. Others, even in comparatively recent times, 

 used the rancid stored butter as an appetizer. In Dardistan 

 peasants are said to highly value salted butter grease that has 

 been kept a long time, and that which is over one hundred 

 years of age is greatly prized. 



"Little is known of the part which butter played as an 

 article of commerce in ancient times. However, an early his- 

 torian states that in the first centuries butter was shipped from 

 India to ports of the Red Sea. In the twelfth century Scandi- 

 navian butter was an article of over-sea commerce. The Ger- 

 mans sent ships to Bergen, in Norway, and exchanged their 

 cargoes of wine for butter and dried fish. It is interesting to 

 note that the Scandinavian king considered this practice in- 

 jurious to his people, and in 1186 compelled the Germans to 

 withdraw their trade. Toward the end of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, among the enumerated wares of commerce imported, from 

 thirty-four countries into Belgium, Norway was the only one 

 which included butter. In the fourteenth century butter formed 

 an article of export from Sweden. It may be fairly inferred 

 that butter-making in north and middle Europe, if not in- 

 deed in all Europe, was introduced from Scandinavia. 



"John Houghton, an Englishman, writing on dairying in 

 1695, speaks of the Irish as rotting their butter by burying it 

 in bogs. His report was confirmed by the discovery, in 1817 

 and later, of butter thus buried, packed in firkins. This burying 

 of butter in the peat bogs of Ireland may have been for the 

 purpose of storing against a time of need, or to hide it from 

 invaders, or to ripen it for the purpose of developing flavor 

 in a manner similar to cheese ripening." 



