446 MARKETING OF BUTTER 



years immediately following the Civil War, when domestic but- 

 ter production was at ebbtide and prices soared high, 40 cents 

 and over, butter imports reached their maximum. From 1885 

 to 1900 when domestic quotations for butter were relatively 

 low, averaging 23 cents, butter imports reached their minimum 

 figure. After the year 1900 butter quotations steadily rose and 

 the amount of imported butter increased. After the tariff re- 

 vision which went into effect in November, 1913, and which low- 

 ered the tariff on foreign butter from 6 to 2*4 cents per pound, 

 foreign shipments of butter arriving at the Atlantic and Pacific 

 seaports increased very rapidly. This increase would un- 

 doubtedly have continued had it not been for the advent of the 

 European War which diminished the surplus of foreign butter 

 and increased the home demand for butter in the warring and 

 neutral countries abroad, causing an immediate and rapid de- 

 cline of butter imported into the United States from foreign 

 countries. 



Source of Butter Imports. The amount and value of but- 

 ter and butter substitutes imported from foreign countries dur- 

 ing the years 1911 to 1915 inclusive is shown in Table 63. 



Prior to the war and immediately after the tariff revision 

 the chief importing European nations were England and Den- 

 mark. Small consignments also came from Belgium, France, 

 Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia in 

 Europe, Spain, and Turkey in Europe.- Since the beginning of 

 the war the imports from the warring and neutral nations have 

 become insignificant, Denmark remaining the principal shipper. 



Imports from countries of the North American continent 

 are largely confined to Canada. The South American butter 

 comes largely from Argentine. In Asia, Turkey is the principal 

 country from which butter reached our ports. From Oceania, 

 Australia and New Zealand were the chief shippers of imported 

 butter and the small amounts of butter imported from Africa 

 came largely from Egypt, Tripoli and Italian Africa. At the 

 close of the year 1916 importation of foreign butter had ceased 

 almost entirely. 



