THE MARKETING OF FARM PRODUCTS 867 



merchants' voting members were reduced to three, their fourth member being 

 the chairman of the committee and having no vote. It was further decided 

 that if the Chamber failed to accept this offer the Butter Statistics Committee 

 would be called upon to fix a weekly quotation at Odense, if possible in 

 conjunction with butter exporters. 



Our Copenhagen correspondent now writes : The Statistics Committee of 

 the Danish dairy farmers' organizations held a meeting at Odense on Saturday, 

 in order to discuss the following communication from the Copenhagen Chamber 

 of Commerce. The Committee agreed to accept the offer from the Chamber, 

 and in the meantime to continue their cooperation on the previous basis and 

 to express their willingness to continue the negotiations about future arrange- 

 ments. The communication from the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce was 

 as follows : 



" The committee, having had the opportunity of consulting with the 

 Danish butter exporters, through their organization, begs to give the follow- 

 ing answer : 



" The Copenhagen butter quotation has this year existed thirty-four years, 

 and during this long time has maintained its reputation and importance, besides 

 serving as a basis for account sales in relation to the Danish butter producers 

 (that is, as a buyer quotation) ; also has served as a sale quotation to the Eng- 

 lish receivers. The natural consequence of this double position has been this, 

 that the quotation has now and again been subjected to strong attacks from 

 diverse sides, but in spite of this it has by degrees developed into such an im- 

 portant price regulator for the sales of Danish butter, that it might be no less 

 to the interests of Danish dairy-farming than to those of the Danish butter 

 trade, that this quotation was maintained. The Committee, however, is unable 

 to accept the Dairy Statistics Committee's proposal as to the formation of the 

 committee which is to fix the Copenhagen butter quotation, whereby the com- 

 mercial element of a necessity would be in the minority. Since 1 884, farming 

 representatives have assisted at the quotation, originally only as exercising a 

 kind of control, from 1887 with the right to vote; and after the agreement 

 arrived at in the spring of 1906 between the organizations of agriculture and 

 dairy-farming on the one hand and the committee on the other, the farming 

 section and the merchant section have an equal number of votes in the quota- 

 tion. Hereby a natural balance of proportion between the buying and selling 

 interests has been maintained, which the committee cannot upset. Also, for 

 this reason, that the Union of Exporters of Danish Butter has unanimously 

 decided that they will not agree to an arrangement such as that proposed by 

 the Statistics Committee. As regards the British butter merchants, it might 

 also be of definite importance that the Copenhagen quotation maintains the 

 character of a commercial quotation, whereby it has gained its prestige. As, 

 on the other hand, it might easily prove highly detrimental to Danish interests, 

 both the producers' and the merchants' interests, if an agricultural quota- 

 tion actually were established in addition to the Copenhagen quotation, the 



