I4 2 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [366 



regular customers who soon became acquainted with the 

 quality of the goods he had to sell. He sold at the highest 

 prices possible, and charged a commission of from one to 

 two cents a pound for his services. The remainder of the 

 proceeds he returned to the producer. He also submitted 

 offers made by dealers from New York to factories for 

 large lots of butter. The captain, therefore, performed 

 the very important services of a middleman. 



In regions less favored by transportation facilities butter 

 was sold to the country grocer or merchant who assorted 

 qualities and colors, packed it, and shipped it to wholesale 

 houses of the city. Butter in the eastern states was fre- 

 quently marketed in this manner, 1 and from the Western 

 Reserve of Ohio from about 1855 for a number of years it 

 was the only way. 2 Butter from Ohio at that time was 

 largely sent to California. 



Of course for local consumption butter was sold either 

 directly to the consumer or to the village grocer who was 

 the only middleman in the distributing process. 



Aside from these different practices there was some direct 

 dealing between dairymen and consumers living in big 

 cities. This developed, however, only when the farmer 

 made butter of excellent quality and was fortunate enough 

 to find discriminating customers. Of the total amount of 

 butter consumed in the big cities, the part distributed by 

 direct dealing must have been only a small percentage. 



DIRECT CONSIGNMENT TO COMMISSION MERCHANTS 



Late in the 6o's " some of the producers sent their butter 

 and cheese directly to the Boston market, but not a large 

 number of them ". 3 At that time butter makers began more 



1 F. D. Douglas in Report of the Vermont Dairy Association for 1871. 



2 Ohio Agricultural Report for 1858, p. 298. 



3 Report of the Vermont Dairy Association for 1872. 



