364 PACKING BUTTER 



CHAPTER XII. 

 PACKING BUTTER. 



Variety of Packages. Butter is packed and placed upon the 

 market in a great variety of receptacles and forms, varying wide- 

 ly in shape, style and material, such as tubs, boxes, cubes, fir- 

 kins, tin cans, crocks, pails, prints, rolls and individual molds, 

 and varying in weight from one-fourth pound bars up to 110 

 pound firkins. The standard Danish firkin weighs 50 kilograms, 

 or 110.23 pounds net. The great bulk of the American butter 

 that is put up for the wholesale produce trade in the large mar- 

 kets is packed in tubs, boxes and cubes, while the local trade and 

 retail stores prefer much of their butter in the finished package, 

 the print. Export butter is put up in tubs and cubes, and butter 

 intended for the tropics and much of the butter furnished the 

 United States Navy, is packed in hermetically sealed tin cans. 

 Farm butter is packed in crocks, small fibre boxes, small tubs 

 and pails, rolls, special molds and prints. In many foreign 

 countries the firkin is the predominating package, though much 

 foreign butter is also packed in boxes and prints. 



Tubs. Butter tubs are usually constructed of spruce or 

 white ash. They range in size from ten pounds to 63 pounds 

 net. While no particular size has been adopted officially as 

 the standard size tub, the 60 to 63 pound tub is by far the most 

 popular and is used for the great bulk of American tub butter. 



The war situation threatened a shortage of white ash and 

 especially of spruce. For a time the creameries had difficulty 

 in locating and contracting for a sufficient supply of tubs and 

 prices soared to an unprecedented level. A campaign was start- 

 ed to invite and urge the creamerymen to break away from the 

 butter tub and use boxes or cubes instead. The effort failed and 

 the tub prevailed in spite of all handicaps. The reason for this 

 persistence and tenacity with which creameries stick to the tub 

 is not limited by mere custom and usage. There is no question 

 that, all things considered, the 60 to 63 pound tub is the most 

 satisfactory form of package in which to handle butter in bulk. 

 The mechanical handling at the creamery, in transit, at the 

 market end and in cold storage is by far easier and more prac- 



