418 MARKETING OF BUTTER 



pay for it in weekly or monthly cash payments, or it is sold to 

 the local country store which generally pays the farmer in trade 

 and not in cash. The great bulk of dairy butter goes to the 

 country store. This is a most primitive method of marketing 

 butter which results, in the great majority of cases, to the dis- 

 advantage of the dairyman. 



Selling Creamery Butter Locally.---Generally speaking the 

 best markets are those nearest home. Selling butter locally, either 

 to the direct consumer at the door of the creamery, by going 

 direct to residences, through, public or municipal markets, by 

 parcel post, or selling to local stores, or shipping direct to retail 

 stores in neighboring towns and cities, has many and distinct ad- 

 vantages. It enables the creamery to reduce the number of middle- 

 men to the minimum or to do without them entirely, thereby 

 netting the creamery the consumer's or retailer's price. It saves 

 transportation charges to distant points, which may amount to 

 from 1 to 2 cents or more per pound of butter. It protects the 

 butter against conditions unfavorable to its quality in transit and 

 reduces the interval between manufacture and consumption, 

 thereby enabling the creamery to supply the consumer with butter 

 of better quality and demanding a better price. It gives the cream- 

 ery a better opportunity to put "up its butter in the final pack- 

 age, the print, and under its own brand, thereby establishing 

 a constant trade for its own butter and usually at satisfactory 

 prices. It protects the creamery against loss by shrinkage. 



In some instances creameries have succeeded in disposing 

 of part of their regular output through what is known as the 

 club-buying system. Clubs whose members are consumers 

 are organized by a local individual in his community. He 

 buys butter regularly and usually in sufficiently large quantity 

 per shipment, to supply all the members of his club. This is 

 a very effective system of reaching the consumer in distant 

 markets direct, but the amount of butter that the creamery 

 can dispose of through this channel is naturally limited. 



The chief difficulty encountered by the average small cream- 

 ery in establishing and holding local markets lies in the irregu- 

 larity of the amount of its output throughout the year and the 

 fluctuations in the demand and supply of local markets. 



