MARKETING CREAMERY BUTTER. 29 



purposes. Many distributors who have a regular established trade 

 make a practice of storing butter in order to be assured of a supply 

 during the winter season. Other dealers store large quantities of 

 butter as a speculative investment. 



The principal places of storage in the eastern United States are 

 Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Omaha. Among 

 other cities at which considerable quantities are stored are St. Paul, 

 Duluth, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, 

 and Norfolk. On the Pacific coast San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, 

 Spokane, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles are the principal points 

 of storage. Owing to its geographical location, which permits easy 

 reshipment to the East or South, Chicago is the greatest center for 

 the storage of butter. Omaha is becoming a large storage center 

 for butter made by the centralizing plants in that section. A tem- 

 perature of zero Fahrenheit or below usually is maintained in butter- 

 storage rooms. 



REPORTS OF HOLDINGS IN STORAGE. 



There are approximately 50 cold-storage warehouses that are mem- 

 bers of the American Warehousemen's Association which report at 

 the close of each month the amount of butter and eggs in their 

 storages. This report is issued by the secretary of the association. 

 These warehouses are believed to carry approximately 50 per cent of 

 the total butter in storage. 



On August 1, 1916, the Office of Markets and Rural Organization 

 of the Department of Agriculture began to issue monthly reports 

 of the holdings of creamery butter in storage. Information for 

 these reports is obtained from the cold-storage warehouses on blanks 

 furnished by the department. Statistics of the cold-storage holdings 

 of butter in 1914 indicate that approximately 18 per cent of the 

 butter placed in storage is received into storage in May, 33 per cent 

 in June, 23 per cent in July, and 7 per cent in August, or during 

 these four months 81 per cent of the butter stored is delivered into 

 storage. Deliveries out of storage were more gradual, approxi- 

 mately 11 per cent being removed in August, 8 per cent in Septem- 

 ber, 9 per cent in October, 12 per cent in November, 15 per cent in 

 December, 11 per cent in January, 9 per cent in February, 11 per 

 cent in March, and 5 per cent in April. The deliveries out of storage 

 during each of eight months (September to April, inclusive) exceed 

 the receipts into storage, therefore the period of storage for various 

 lots is variable. The average length of storage is approximately 6.2 

 months. 



Legislation in regard to the cold storage of butter differs in the 

 various States. Some States require that the packages be stamped 



