MARKETING OF BUTTER 415 



that do not supply a highly critical trade. In trade of this kind 

 many of the customers buy butter largely by the brand, they 

 believe in the brand and if the butter is fairly uniform in quality 

 they are satisfied. Similar markets may be located in the whole- 

 sale trade of the large consuming centers for the surplus butter. 

 There are wholesale dealers in these markets whose specialty lies 

 in catering to the less critical trade and who therefore are in 

 a position to dispose of the creamery shipments of butter of 

 only fair quality to good advantage. It is to the creamery's 

 interest to study the different channels through which the grade 

 of butter which it produces will net the highest price. 



There are times when it is exceedingly difficult for the 

 creamery to secure a satisfactory price on the wholesale market. 

 During the early summer months when the principal demand in 

 the larger markets is for butter for storage purposes, butter is 

 bought strictly on the quality basis and sour-cream butter is 

 not in demand, except that from creameries which have estab- 

 lished a reputation of knowing how to handle such cream and 

 how to manufacture from it a product of dependable keeping 

 quality. Then again, in August and September, when the jobbers 

 are loaded with May and June butter of good quality, and 

 which they bought at low prices, the fresh midsummer butter 

 is usually of poorer quality than the May and June butter placed 

 in storage, the demand for it is very limited and its sales are 

 often possible only by offering it at prices below those paid for 

 the early summer butter. At the same time midsummer prices 

 of butterfat paid by the creamery are generally higher than 

 prices paid to the farmers for May and June butterfat. This 

 combination of conditions therefore is prone to yield returns un- 

 satisfactory to the creamery. The advantage to the creamery 

 of having direct connection with consumptive channels of dis- 

 tribution, such as local and neighborhood retail stores, is obvious, 

 and the creamery should aim, during unfavorable periods of the 

 wholesale trade in the larger markets, to move its lower grades 

 through these local channels. 



The creamery which grades its cream and churns the grades 

 separately may succeed in satisfying its more critical trade with 

 the butter from the first grade cream. The butter from the 

 second grade cream may be sold to bakeries and confectioners 



