1 30 7 HE B UTTER IND USTR Y IN UNITED ST A TES [ 3-4 



essary to make a number of exceptions, like " Elgin ", etc. 

 Prices quoted therefore as Eastern and Western after 1876 

 are frequently misleading. The following statement * of 

 prices may be taken as substantially correct with regard to 

 the significance of the class terms ; and it is noted that there 

 is no longer the great difference in price, and therefore not 

 the difference in quality between Eastern and Western, that 

 obtained before 1877: 



Year 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 



Eastern 29 j£ .26 > 2 4}4 - 22 ,2 3K - 2 4 



Western 28 .24 .22 .22 .21^ .22 



Difference OI % - 02 -° 2 /£ •°° -° 2 •° 2 



Although these class terms were of little significance as 

 these prices show, the New York Mercantile Exchange 

 continued to carry them until as late as 1886. 2 That is, 

 creamery and dairy butters were classified as Eastern 

 Creamery and Dairy and Western Creamery and Dairy. 

 The Boston Chamber of Commerce, however, does not use 

 these terms in its annual report for 1886, and classifies 

 butter strictly with regard to the process of manufacture, 

 as follows : Creamery, Imitation Creamery, Dairy, and 

 Ladle Packed. 



The abandonment of the geographical producing area as 

 a basis for classifying butter, and the substitution of the 

 process of manufacture, was of course inevitable for the 

 simple reason that the former had lost its significance and 

 could no longer characterize the supply; while the latter 

 basis is significant, and actually does classify large lots of 

 butter with regard to quality. 



The Boston Chamber of Commerce, in its annual report 



1 Ninth Annual Report of the New York Dairy Commissioner, pp. 

 138-9. 

 - N. Y. Mercantile Exchange, Butter Rules, adopted March 23. 18S6. 



