THE UNITED- KINGDOM. 231 



foreign correspondents, go to the Cork Butter Exchange daily and buy 

 the brands they require at the open competition which takes place, as ex- 

 plained by Mr. Clanchy, at 11 a. m. each day ; and they resell to their cus- 

 tomers at a fixed regulation commission of 2s. M. (or 60 cents) per hundred- 

 weight over the published Cork market price of that date. This commis- 

 sion includes buying, selecting, carting, coopering, and shipping. Out 

 of this commission they allow buyers a discount of two months at 5 per 

 cent. (*. e.j 2d. per pound sterling, or 4 cents per $4.87) for prompt cash 

 payments, or they draw a bill en the purchaser at two months after date 

 for the net amount of the invoice. Unlike the American shippers they 

 give the butter to the buyer before they receive either cash or bill, and 

 frequently they have to regret this system of trading, as their customers 

 often become bankrupts and completely evade payment for the goods 

 purchased. Having observed the system here and in the United States, 

 I am inclined to believe that the latter is the better and safer, since it re- 

 quires the drafts to be paid by the consignees before they obtain posses- 

 sion of the bills of lading, and consequently before they get possession 

 of the goods. 



JOHN J. PIATT, 



Consul. 

 UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Corfc, October 29, 1885. 



THE BUTTER TRADE OF CORK.* 



The staple product of the South of Ireland is butter. The province of Munster, of 

 which Cork is the chief city, is essentially and before all other things a butter-pro- 

 ducing country, for which it possesses a remarkable combination of natural advan- 

 tages not to be found together elsewhere. The essential conditions for making good 

 butter, are: (1) A mild, equable climate, not too hot in summer and not too cold in 

 winter. (2) A sufficient rainfall to promote an 'abundant growth of grass. (3) A 

 good firm soil, not over-rich. Fine butter cannot be made in an excessively hot cli- 

 mate, and of course snow and frost, that cover and bind up the pastures for a consid- 

 erable part of the year, render its production in quantity impossible. 



Grass-fed butter will always be the best, and the country where the cattle can be 

 fully grass-fed in the open air for the longest period of the year is that in which most 

 butter of good quality can be produced. 



The climate of Munster is rendered singularly even in its temperature by its geo- 

 graphical position. Its coast lino extends over nearly the whole southern end and a 

 large portion of the western side of the island, receiving the first influence of the great 

 warm ocean current, the Gulf Stream, which acts as an equalizer of temperature, a 

 sort of governor, preventing the winter from being too cold and the summer from 

 being too hot. The warm vapors floating over the land in winter raise the temper- 

 ature, and by forming clouds and rain in the summer prevent excessive heat. 



'The winters are much milder than in other countries of the same latitude. Occa- 

 sionally a winter passes without sufficient ice to give even one day's skating. 



The rainfall is very great, and combined with the mildness of the seasons causes an 

 abundant growth of grass for a large part of the year. A great proportion of the 

 pastures are on undulating uplands, the configuration of which lends itself to rapid 

 irrigation, the water running off the slope and leaving the grounds sufficiently moist 

 without morass or sponginess. 



The pastures in those upland districts are not over-rich, but good, sound, friable 

 soil, producing sweet, crisp herbage, the butter made from which possesses great 

 keeping properties and a peculiarly delightful taste, the true butter flavor, so dear 

 to those who know and can appreciate it, the absence of which is to be noticed in 

 many of the continental butters, and in some Irish butters made off very rich lowland 

 pastures. 



It is found that the excess of fat or oil made off deep rich soil makes them more 

 liable to turn rancid, and reduces their keeping qualities, and that such butters, how- 



* This report was prepared by Mr. T. J. Clanchy, a Cork butter merchant. 



