MARKETING OF BUTTER 445 



Quality of Butter Exported. 1 Prior to the European war 

 the great bulk of butter exported by the United States has 

 been of the lower grades. This is due in part to the fact that the 

 surplus butter available for export has consisted of the poorer 

 grades, partly because there is always a large demand in our 

 home markets for our better grades and a disposition of our high 

 class trade to pay higher prices for the best butter than can be 

 obtained in foreign markets, and partly because many foreign 

 markets, including the English markets, do not demand our 

 highest grades, as the poorer classes in many of the larger for- 

 eign cities cannot afford to purchase our best grades. For 

 this class of trade, therefore, an inferior quality of butter is 

 exported. The quality of butter for export, therefore, is largely 

 dependent upon the class of trade and the purpose for which 

 the butter is to be used. 



The fact is that before the war the export business was al- 

 most wholly on Renovated and Baking butter. Since the be- 

 ginning of the war, however, the export business has been 

 largely on butter scoring 90 to 92 points. 



While the difference in price for butter between foreign 

 and domestic markets will always remain the governing factor 

 in the quality and quantity of butter exported, it is to be hoped 

 that, with the systematic improvement in the quality of Ameri- 

 can butter, the development of foreign markets for our highest 

 quality of butter may grow more rapidly in the future than it 

 has in the past and that our total exports may assume pro- 

 portions consistent with the vastness of the butter industry at 

 home. 



Imports. The annual imports into the United States of 

 foreign butter have averaged very materially less than the ex- 

 ports. The extreme variations of annual imports ranged be- 

 tween 6,821,696 pounds of butter in 1868 and 23,700 pounds in 

 1899. Since the year 1884 and up to 1909 they amounted to less 

 than one million pounds annually. Beginning with the year 

 1910 the annual imports exceeded one million pounds. 



The imports fluctuated largely with the domestic butter 

 quotations and the rate of tariff on foreign butter. During the 



1 Information furnished by Prof. R. C. Potts, Specialist in Marketing 

 Dairy Products, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1916. 



