CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



15 



What was said of the cattle surplus of the world finding a market in 

 the United Kingdom is equally true of butter and cheese. The condi- 

 tions which govern that market may therefore be said to govern all 

 other markets ; at least this holds good so far as our exports of dairy 

 products to Europe are concerned. 



The following statement shows the amount and value of butter and 

 butterine for, strange to say, the British customs returns do not distin- 

 guish between butter and oleomargarine imported into the United 

 Kingdom during the year 1884 : 



Butter and butterine imports. 



It will be noted that Danish butter leads all foreign butter in price 

 per pound in the British market, being higher than even the celebrated 

 Channel Islands butter. This is a fine tribute to what may be called a 

 national effort in this leading industry of Denmark, lor Government and 

 people seem to be united in the determination to combine all the ad- 

 vanced appliances for the manufacture of this product with the utmost 

 care and selection of the stock, cleanliness, and care in handling the 

 milk, cream, and butter, and putting the latter on the British market 

 in the most acceptable condition. Next to Denmark, the products of 

 Germany, Sweden, and France stand very high in the British market. 

 . The comparatively low place occupied by the product of Holland 

 should not detract from the noted dairy farmers of that country, it be- 

 ing wholly due to the fact that a great portion of the imports therefrom 

 into the United Kingdom is oleomargarine, or imitation butter. Consul 

 Ryder, in his report on the butter export of Denmark, calls attention 

 to this fact, and the Irish butter-makers, as will be seen on reference 

 to the report from Consul Piatt, of Cork, protest that the Dutch manu- 

 facture butterine, or oleomargarine, properly speaking, to imitate Irish 

 butter, in counterfeit packages, and that it is largely sold as Irish but- 

 ter in England, and even in Ireland. 



To properly estimate the amount of this so-called u Dutch butter" 

 imported into the United Kingdom, we have only^to compare the im- 

 ports from Holland in 1877, before oleomargarine had become an in- 

 dustry in that country, and the imports during the year 1884. In the 

 former year the imports were 41,679,085 pounds, against 100,128,032 

 pounds in 1884. In the former year the British imports of French but- 

 ter amounted to 16,000,000 pounds more than the imports of Dutch but- 

 ter, while in 1884 Dutch butter led the French by nearly 44,000,000 



