QUALITIES AND CONSUMPTION OF BUTTER. 249 



of degrees the thickness of the cream occupies in each 

 tube. 



" Signed J. N." 



" With respect to the qualities and consumption of 

 BUTTER generally, England and Holland are said to 

 produce the best, and are certainly the largest makers 

 and consumers. The preference is assigned in the 

 Metropolis to the butters of Epping (in Essex), 

 Cambridgeshire and Somersetshire. Gloucester, Ox- 

 fordshire, and the midland dairy counties produce 

 good butter, as do those parts of every English 

 county where good feed for cows is to be found. The 

 Scotch and Welsh mountains produce the finest fla- 

 voured butter, though necessarily small in quantity. 

 The dairy districts of Suffolk make large quantities 

 of excellent butter, forming a considerable surplus for 

 the supply of London, in half cwt. firkins. It is pro- 

 bably the best salt butter to be procured in the Me- 

 tropolis. In the opinion of the present writer, who 

 has tasted Dutch butter, both here and in Holland, 

 it is a mistake to suppose f it superior to that of any 

 other country.' It has neither the flavour nor the 

 substantial quality of English butter, and is often found 

 in a very slovenly condition, abounding with hairs and 

 other impurities. It however forms, perhaps, three- 

 fourths of all the foreign butter imported into this 

 country. The consumption of London is speculatively 

 averaged at about one half pound per week for each 

 individual, or after the rate of 261bs. per year ; thus 

 again supposing the population to amount to 1,450,000 

 the total annual consumption would be 37,700, OOOlbs., 

 or 16,830 tons. To this may be added 4000 tons of 

 M 5 



