440 MARKETING o BUTTER 



sold, and the party who is trying to buy or sell is not familiar 

 with prospective customers in the distant market. 



Frequently the wholesale receivers or the commission men 

 have their butter printed by the so-called ''butter cutters." These 

 men have the equipment for printing butter and receive a small 

 commission for their services. Again, there are firms with chain 

 stores, whose buyers may purchase their entire supply of butter 

 from the wholesale receiver, or the commission man. 



Finally, there is the speculative buyer of butter. He may 

 be a part of the butter business, the creamery, the wholesale re- 

 ceiver, the commission man, the jobber, etc. But quite often 

 he belongs to a class generally not handling butter as a main 

 business, but largely or wholly only for speculation on the side. 

 Thus, especially during the storage season, when butter prices 

 are at ebbtide, individuals in diverse walks of life, buy butter 

 and put it in storage with the hope of reaping a profit when butter 

 prices are high. This type of speculative buyer represents an ele- 

 ment that does not usually add stability to the butter business. He 

 is interested largely only in temporary private gain, in making 

 a little "easy money." When the market unexpectedly weak- 

 ens, he generally becomes panicky and pours his holdings ou*t on 

 the market, causing a further weakening of prices, which in 

 some cases may result in a slump of the market to the tem- 

 porary detriment of the butter industry This in turn usually 

 discourages this class of butter buyers and often rids the busi- 

 ness of much of the speculative element for several years. 



Consumption of Butter in the United States and in Other 

 Countries. According to T. R. Pirtle, 1 Statistician United States 

 Dairy Division, there was prior to the World war, a 

 steady increase in the consumption of butter throughout the 

 world, and the countries of small butter production had been 

 importing increasing amounts of butter year by year. 



Exceptions to this general statement are the United States 

 which has shown a decrease in consumption since 1900, the 

 Netherlands since 1903 and the United Kingdom since 1906. 



The following figures, secured from Mr. Pirtle's article show 

 the per capita butter consumption by years in the United States 

 and in other countries. 



1 Pirtle The Consumption of Butter in the U. S. and in Other Countries, 

 The Milk Magazine, Vol. IT, No. 6, 1919. 



