383] PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF BUTTER MARKET 759 



the railroads making a special rate of 2c. per pound in refriger- 

 ator cars to the eastern seaboard. Dealers also brought about 

 10,000 packages across from Canada on which a duty of 6c. 

 per pound was paid. 1 



THE DEALERS 



Dairy butter is frequently sold directly to the consumer. 

 The farmer delivers it with his own team to the customer's 

 door, or brings it to the city's public market where it is taken 

 from the farmer's stand. Some is sold to the rural merchant 

 who constitutes the middleman between the producer and 

 the village folk. Some is also sold to hucksters who travel 

 on regular days through the country and collect butter, eggs, 

 poultry, vegetables and other produce. The huckster sells 

 it to the wholesale dealer. 



Some of the creamery butter is also sold to the rural mer- 

 chant, but most of it is shipped from the factory to the 

 wholesale dealer of the city, by him sold to the jobber who 

 sells it to the retailer or grocer, and by the grocer sold to 

 the consumer. Most of the factory butter therefore passes 

 through three middlemen. But there are exceptions to this 

 method. In at least one case the butter is sold directly to 

 the consumer. The creamery ships to delivery agents where 

 there are enough customers to warrant their employment, 

 and where the customers are fewer the butter is delivered 

 by the express company. 2 In this case there is no middle- 

 man except a delivery man whose services, however, in ad- 

 dition to providing local transportation, include those of a 

 salesman. Because of the fact that in every large city there 

 are a number of " chain " grocery stores, a considerable por- 



1 Review of the butter trade in Report of N. Y. Chamber of Com- 

 merce for 1905, p. 50. 



* U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 

 164, p. 32. 



