866 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



butter to pay for its making. The farmers pay for the return 

 of the skim milk at the rate of 2 o re a kilo, but this is almost 

 exactly the rate at which the surplus is divided, so we can neglect 

 both the surplus and the price of the skim milk. 



The packing is done in a uniform way throughout the country. 

 The butter is packed in barrels containing 1 1 2\- pounds (the 

 one half pound is added to allow for evaporation). 



Nearly all of the butter is sold on contracts bearing relation to 

 the Copenhagen quotations. These quotations have existed for 

 twenty years or more, and, although a good deal of opposition 

 has been made to them, they continue to be used by nearly all 

 the buyers. They are made up as follows : The committee of the 

 Chamber of Commerce at Copenhagen meets every Thursday 

 afternoon and decides whether the condition of the English and 

 German market requires a raising or a lowering of the prices. 

 This committee is composed of butter dealers, who keep the 

 price as high as they can and still sell all the butter they wish. 

 All of the contracts for butter are based on these quotations, but 

 competition among buyers has resulted in an overprice being paid 

 for the butter. Since this overprice is universal in Denmark, the 

 committee on quotations makes allowance for it and quotes a lower 

 price than the price actually paid. About ten years ago this over- 

 price was so large that the quotations were about 1 5 per cent too 

 low. The farmers made such strenuous objection that the quota- 

 tions were raised to the proper level. At present the quotations 

 are about 2 kroner too low. We enclose a clipping from The 

 Grocer concerning these quotations. 



THE GROCER AUGUST 10, 1912 



COPENHAGEN BUTTER QUOTATION 



The Negotiations in Denmark 



On July 27 we announced that delegates from all the dairy organizations 

 in Denmark had met at Odense in the previous week and formed a Central 

 Dairy Union for the whole country, to operate as from January 1, 191 3. The 

 butter-quotation question was considered, and the meeting resolved to inform 

 the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce that its representatives would con- 

 tinue to take part in the fixing of the quotation on condition that the dairy- 

 farming interests had four voting members on the committee, and that the 



