CO-OPERATIVE BUTTER EXPORT SOCIETIES 81 



As has been said, the price paid for butter was regulated by 

 the Copenhagen quotation, and a premium over and above the" 

 quoted price was paid to certain dairies for excellence of quality. 

 At least, that was the origin and intention of the so-called 

 " overprice," but by stress of competition it became more and 

 more common to pay overprices, and these, it was found, 

 gradually lost all relation to the quality. The stimulus to 

 improve the quality of the butter in order to obtain a better 

 price was thereby lost. The quality of the butter certainly 

 became more and more uniform throughout the country on 

 account of improved dairy methods, and was improved all 

 round by several means, among which should be mentioned the 

 Butter Shows of various kinds — local, provincial, and the State 

 Butter Shows at Copenhagen, which latter are now compulsory 

 by Law for all dairies using the " Lur-Brand." At the same 

 time Danish farmers on many occasions attempted to introduce 

 a reliable system of payment according to quality, but found 

 that they were unable to obtain this so long as the butter trade 

 was carried on in the usual way. There is no doubt but that 

 in the early days of the butter trade the criticisms of the quality 

 of the butter, including flavour, colour, salting and packing, 

 amount of brine, etc., which exporters addressed to the dairies 

 together with a deduction from the amount due to them, helped 

 the managers to improve the quality and to make the butter 

 conform more closely to the wishes of the English consumers. 

 But in many cases the farmers suspected criticism to be merely 

 an excuse for a reduction in price, which they considered un- 

 called for. The greater the perfection of the dairy industry 

 and the greater the uniformity and reliability of the butter 

 when it left the dairy, the less readily were farmers and dairy 

 managers willing to accept an individual merchant's criticism 

 of their butter. A comparison between the quality of a dairy's 

 butter, as found by the careful judging at butter shows and 

 the price paid for that dairy's butter, showed that the price 

 stood in no relation to the quality. There were other, mostly 

 very technical, reasons for disagreement between producers 

 and merchants. Farmers therefore began to think that they 

 might obtain certain advantages by taking the sale and export 

 of butter in their own hands. 



