THE UNITED KINGDOM. 233 



over 3,000,000. The conditions that have brought about this remarkable change, a 

 change which is unparalleled in peace or war, in any country in the history of the 

 world, are well worthy of the thoughtful study of statesmen and economists. Whether 

 this result is the outcome of state policy in the past, or of the accidents of geographical 

 environments, laws, and social system, it equally suggests Goldsmith's celebrated lines, 

 which, by substituting " live stock" for " wealth." apply to it with remarkable apti- 

 tude : 



III fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 



"Where stock accumulates and men decay. 



The bearing, however, of these figures on the question of the butter supply, is that 

 they show that Ireland has a larger proportion of its butter to export, and less people 

 at home to consume it, than any other country, an additional proof of the great im- 

 portance of the Irish butter industry to commerce. 



The city of Cork, the capital of the province, is the natural outlet for the greater 

 portion of the butter produced in Munster, owing to its central position, its unrivaled 

 harbor of Quoenstown, and its direct communication by roads and railways, which 

 tap the principal butter-producing districts. A butter market has been held in Cork 

 for a very long time, and in 1769 it was placed under the management of a committee 

 of the principal merchants, under whom it remained for one hundred and fourteen 

 years, until the present year, when a special act of Parliament was passed, transfer- 

 ing its management to a body of trustees, with power to%nake by-laws for its regu- 

 lation. 



The quantity of butter which passes through this market is enormous. In the first 

 year, 1709, of the record, 105,309 packages passed through the market, and the annual 

 quantity has since largely increased, being now considerably more than three times 

 as much. 



The largest quantity received in any one year was in 1878, when 434,239 firkins 

 passed through the market. ' 



The Cork butter market is held every day, Sunday and a few holidays excepted, 

 and the sales on a single day have beeii as large as 3,800 firkins of about 75 pounds 

 net, which, when prices were high, would be value for about 12,000 sterling ($58,398.) 

 All the butter has to be cleared away within the day to make room for another large 

 quantity coming by road and rail for the next day's market. The system of selling 

 butter in the Cork market is peculiar to this market. At a quarter before 11 a. m., 

 buyers and sellers assemble around a table, and at the first stroke of 11 all buying must 

 be concluded, and the whole quantity of butter, frequently some thousands of firkins, 

 has changed hands. To the uninitiated the buying and selling at this table appears to 

 be a perfect Babel, which can only be understood by the brokers and exporters, who 

 keep up a perfect cross-fire of offers and bids until the stroke of the clock at 11, when 

 suddenly all the noise ceases, buying and selling are over for the day, and the buyers 

 proceed to carfc away their purchases. The firkin butter is inspected and classified 

 by sworn judges, and all the bargains at the table are made for the various qualities 

 of butter so classified. This applies only to the officially classified butter, but there 

 is now also, since the passing of the recent act of Parliament, an open market, where 

 butter is bought and sold onthe judgment of the buyers and sellers themselves, with- 

 out any official classification. 



There is another branch of the trade which is of great importance that of pre- 

 served butter in hermetically-closed cans. Up to very recently there were certain 

 restrictions placed on this branch of the trade in the interest of the dealers hi fir- 

 kins, and, although Irish butter, from its great keeping properties, is, perhaps, the 

 most suitable of any in the world for preserving, this important branch of the trade 

 was allowed to go into the hands of the Danish and French packers, who had several 

 years' start of the Irish tinned- butter preservers, and got possession of the various 

 foreign markets. It is gratifying to be able to state, however, that within the last few 

 years, since the Paris Exhibition of 1878, the Irish canned-butter trade has greatly ex- 

 tended, and has been particularly active in the last two years. 



In 1878 the writer of this paper exhibited Irish butter preserved by a special pro 

 cess at the Concours, open to ail nations, held in the Paris Exhibition, and gained the 

 only gold medal thereat for preserved butter. As a further test of its keeping prop- 

 erties, he sent his preserved butter to the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880, and after 

 crossing the tropics on the voyage out, it gained the highest award, the silver medal 

 and first order of merit. He has since gained a silver medal at Calcutta, and his pre- 

 served Irish butter is now (1835) on exhibition in the Government section of the 

 World's Exposition at New Orleans. 



The reports from very remote parts of the world, where it has been sent, Java, 

 the Straits Settlements, China, India, South America, Africa, and other tropical and 

 trans- tropical countries, are most encouraging, and there is every indication that Irish 

 preserved butter is rapidly gaining favor all over the world. 



The following tables will show the fluctuations in the prices of the finest butter for 

 forty years, ending in 1881: 



