310 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



the same as with many other kinds of agricultural pro- 

 duce — the consumers pay too much, the producers 

 receive too little ; while middlemen grow rich. 



I can boar witness that respectable retailers in London 

 and many other places are glad to buy direct from pro- 

 ducers at much higher prices tlian those of Irish markets. 



Thus, in Summer I can sell all my butter packed in 

 French boxes, each holding 12 2-lb. rolls, at ll^d. to 

 15d. per lb., a very different return from 8d., the price 

 often of first quality in Cork. When the price is higher 

 in Cork, I can get a better price also. The retailers 

 sell it at 2d. per lb. profit. Their customers, who have 

 once bought it, will take no other from them, and any 

 delay in its arrival is sorely grumbled at. One retailer 

 having ordered two boxes the first week, ordered four 

 the next, and twelve the third. But the butter must 

 be first-rate, and uniformly good always. 



The Irish Butter Markets — Cork Market above all — 

 are a grievous loss to the country. They are managed 

 wholly for the gain of the dealers, so that a large profit 

 may be made off bad butter as well as off good. The 

 competition in England falls hardest on inferior butter. 

 In consequence of the great importation of American 

 butter and of bosh (butterine), Irish farmers are fairly 

 in a corner. They are competing against inferior pro- 

 duce, that does not cost those who make it half what 

 Irish produce costs. First-rate butter is subject to no 

 such competition. There is not enough of it, probably 

 never will be. Certainly not until the habits of our 

 people have become the same as the habits of French 

 and German and Danish dairymaids, which, I fear, is a 

 far-off time. But our own markets hold out the least 

 encouragement to good butter, though much encourage- 



