I2 6 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [350 



kets, is still bought and sold on the basis of the identity 

 of the maker. 



Before the days of dairy associations, butter-making was 

 not only entirely domestic and therefore extremely indi- 

 vidualistic, but there was no organized means of putting 

 into general use the best methods then known, and as a re- 

 sult there was a general lack of uniformity in the quality of 

 the product. There was no common factor in different lots 

 of butter. Each lot was itself a class. Obviously under 

 these circumstances the only basis for classification was the 

 association of the butter with its maker. 



As butter was produced more and more for the market 

 instead of for local consumption, certain localities devel- 

 oped exceptional skill and uniformity of method. This 

 meant that the product from one of these localities was 

 stamped with a peculiar quality throughout its whole ex- 

 tent. Examples of such localities in dairy history are 

 Orange County in the State of New York and Franklin 

 County in Vermont. 



Before 1840 very little of the butter from Franklin 

 County went to Boston, but practically all its surplus butter, 

 together with cheese and dressed hogs, was taken to Mon- 

 treal. With the completion of the Vermont Central and 

 Vermont & Canada railroads in 1.850, Boston began to seek 

 the butter of Franklin County. In 1854 the Vermont Cen- 

 tral railroad began running its butter cars supplied with ice 

 through the county, the town of St. Albans becoming a 

 very important shipping center for Franklin County butter. 1 

 From this time to the advent of the creamery, Franklin 

 County butter served as a standard for quality in Boston. 



What was true of Franklin County was perhaps more 

 pronounced in Orange County. This county sent its butter 



1 Vermont Agricultural Report for 1872, pp. 158, 159. 



