!6 4 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [388 



Mercantile Exchange by an employee of the United States 

 Weather Bureau. Other publications, such as weekly fore- 

 casts and snow and ice bulletins during the winter, are also 

 posted. A ticker and other telegraph service is maintained. 

 The weekly receipts of butter are watched very closely be- 

 cause this amount will determine the stocks on hand from 

 time to time and has a direct bearing on the price. The 

 average amount distributed weekly in the city and to out- 

 of-town customers, is a matter also kept in mind, because 

 this amount determines the normal effective demand of the 

 city. When therefore the receipts very appreciably rise 

 above or fall below the normal consumptive requirements, 

 a change in the price may be expected. Attention to the 

 weather is by no means as close in the butter market as it is 

 in the cotton market, obviously for the reason that the pro- 

 duction of butter is not dependent upon the weather to the 

 same degree as the growing of cotton. Usually only ab- 

 normal conditions are watched, such as an early spring, pro- 

 longed hot and dry spells, unusually long and cold rain 

 storms, etc. All of these conditions have a very direct in- 

 fluence upon the country's output, and therefore a bearing 

 upon the price. Anything that will interrupt transporta- 

 tion and prevent the receipts from coming into the city, 

 even though it be only for a few days, is a matter care- 

 fully watched. Disturbances of this nature are floods, bliz- 

 zards and railroad strikes. This factor becomes especially 

 important when shipments are delayed at a time when 

 stocks on hand are low. Thus during the second week in 

 January, 19 12, the country became almost snow-bound, 

 causing a rise of 4c. per pound on the better grades. 1 Dur- 

 ing the last week in March, 1913, floods in Ohio, Indiana, 



1 Review of the butter trade by Urner-Barry Co. in the Report of the 

 N. Y. Chamber of Commerce for 1912, p. 73. 



