SUPPLEMENT. 



AMERICAN VS. DANISH AND FRENCH BUTTER IN CEYLON*. 



There was an importation of butter here direct from the United States, which was 

 largely advertised to be offered on arrival at a price which, if the article were good, 

 would insure a rapid sale. Unfortunately it proved to be salted butter in tins, and the 

 condition was not excellent; not, in my opinion, from any fault in the butter itself, 

 which in color and consistency appeared to me quite perfect, but from a strong alka- 

 line flavor pervading the mass, rendering slightly offensive that which otherwise might 

 have been pure and wholesome food. 



I have satisfied myself that the whole mistake about the butter was, first, in salting it at 

 all; secondly, in the use of impure salt, say that which had not been completely cleansed of 

 the several sulphates and oxides which ordinary culinary salt is known to contain; 

 thirdly, that the tin cans were of an inferior quality of tin plate, which therefore lent 

 its impurities all the more readily to the corrosive action of the not very pure salt. 



Some people here will not accept this theory, but believe that the butter was of poor 

 quality when packed. I think differently and regret this circumstance, which must in 

 a measure bring American butter into discredit in a place where I have often extolled its 

 purity and goodness, and where it unquestionably may find a profitable market if ex- 

 hibited to the customers in anything like its native excellence; and I would advise our 

 producers and packers who propose preparing canned goods for export to employ as 

 little salt as possible, and to be sure that whatever of that article is used is pure; also 

 to make their cans of the very best tin plate and solder that are manufactured. 



I inclose duplicate samples of the tin containing the American butter above mentioned; 

 also, samples cut from a Danish butter tin, the difference in quality being very notice- 

 able; and would add that whereas the Danish butter sells rapidly for 65 cents per pound, 

 the American sells slowly for 45 cents. 



The French are sending to the Orient large quantities of butter, in 1 and 2 pound bot- 

 tles, with mouths about 2 inches in diameter, glass stoppered, and secured with hard 

 white cement, so as to be perfectly air-tight. The butter is fresh, but, after being 

 packed, about one tablespoonful of white pearly salt, almost impalpably fine, and ex- 

 quisitely pure, is put into the neck of the bottle, and the stopper secured. This butter 

 retails almost unlimitably at 65 cents, gold, per 1-pound bottle, and at 55 cents per 

 pound in 2-pound bottles. As our country has now become famous for its excellent 

 glass, and there can be no question about the conservation of butter in vessels formed of 

 that material, I sec no reason why our exporters should not pack their butter after the 

 French style, also their cheese, and thereby secure the preservative qualities of these 

 two great articles of universal consumption, as well as a never failing market in the Ori- 

 ental hemisphere. 



CHEESE AND BUTTER MAKING IN ITALY. 



REPORT BY CONSUL GRAIN, OF MILAN. \ 



The Italians devote themselves to the rural arts with Virgilian enthusiasm. The 

 plains of Loinbardy are cultivated with the care bestowed on garden plots in other 



* Ex tract from a report by Consul Morey, of Colombo, Ceylon, published in No. 4 of the 

 Consular publications. 



t Ropublished from Consular Reports No. 10, for August, 1881. 



677 



