THE UNITED KINGDOM. 233 



over 3,000,000. The conditions that have brought about this remarkable change, a 

 change which is unparalleled in peace or war, in any country in the history of the 

 world, are well worthy of the thoughtful study of statesmen and economists. Whether 

 this result is the outcome of state policy in the past, or of the accidents of geographical 

 environments, laws, and social system, it equally suggests Goldsmith's celebrated lines, 

 which, by substituting "live stock" for " wealth," apply to it with remarkable apti- 

 tude: 



HI fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 



"Where stock accumulates and men decay. 



The bearing, however, of these figures on the question of the butter supply, is that 

 they show that Ireland has a larger proportion of its butter to export, and less people 

 at home to consume it, than any other country, an additional proof of the great im- 

 portance of the Irish butter industry to commerce. 



The city of Cork, the capital of the province, is the natural outlet for tho greater 

 portion of the butter produced in Minister, owing to its central position, its unrivaled 

 harbor of Queenstown, and its direct communication byroads and railways, which 

 t ;IT tho principal butter-producing districts. A butter market has been held in Cork 

 for a very long time, and in 1761) it was placed under the management of a committee 

 of tho principal merchants, under whom it remained for one hundred and fourteen 

 years, until the present year, when a special act of Parliament was passed, transfer- 

 ing its management to a body of trustees, with power to make by-laws for its regu- 

 lation. 



The quantity of butter which passes through this market is enormous. In tho first 

 year, 176 f J, of the record, 105,30U packages passed through the market, and tho annual 

 quantity has since largely increased, being now considerably more than three times 

 as much. 



The largest quantity received in any one year was in 1878, when 434,239 firkins 

 passed through tho market. 



All tho butter has to bo cleared away within the day to make room for another large 

 quantity coming by road and rail for the next day's market. The system of selling 

 butter in tho Cork market is peculiar to this market. At a quarter before 11 a. m., 

 buyers and sellers assemble around a table, and at the first stroke of 11 all'buyingmust 

 be concluded, and the whole quantity of butter, frequently some thousands of firkins, 

 has changed hands. To the uninitiated tho buying and selling at this table appears to 

 be a perfect Babel, which can only bo understood by tho brokers and exporters, who 

 keep up a perfect cross-fire of oifers and bids until the stroke of tho clock at 11, when 

 suddenly all the noise ceases, buying and selling are over for tho day, and the buyers 

 proceed to cart away their purchases. The firkin butter is inspected and classified 

 by sworn judges, and all the bargains at tho table are made for the various qualities 

 of butter so classified. This applies only to the officially classified butter, but there 

 is now also, since the passing of the recent act of Parliament, an open market, where 

 butter is bought and sold on tho judgment of the buyers and sellers themselves, with- 

 out any oflicial classification. 



There is another branch of tho trade which is of great importance that of pre- 

 served butter in hermetically-closed cans. Up to very recently there were certain 

 restrictions placed on this branch of the trade in tho interest of the dealers in fir- 

 kins, and, although Irish butter, from its great keeping properties, is, perhaps, tho 

 most suitable of any in tho world for preserving, this important branch of tho trade 

 was allowed to go into tho hands of the Danish and French packers, who had several 

 years' start of the Irish tinned-butter preservers, and got possession of the various 

 foreign markets. It is gratifying to be able to state, however, that within the last few 

 years, since the Paris Exhibition of 1878, the Irish canned-butter trade has greatly ex- 

 tended, and has been particularly active in the last two years. 



In 1878 tho writer of this paper exhibited Irish butter preserved by a special pro 

 at tho Concours, open to all nations, held in the Paris Exhibition, and gained tho 

 only gold medal thereat for preserved butter. As a further test of its keeping prop- 

 erties, he sent his preserved butter to the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880, and after 

 crossing tho tropics on the voyage out, it gained tho highest award, the silver medal 

 and first order of rneri fc. Ho has since gained a silver medal at Calcutta, and his pre- 

 served Irish butter is now (1835) on exhibition in tho Government section of tho 

 World's Exposition at Now Orleans. 



Tho reports from very remote parts of the world, where it has been sent, Java, 

 tho Straits Settlements, China, India, South America, Africa, and other tropical and 

 trans-tropical countries, are most encouraging, and there is every indication that Irish 

 preserved butter is rapidly gaining favor all over the world. 



The following tables will show the fluctuations in the prices of the finest butter for 

 forty years, ending in 1881: 



