PRICES AJSTD QUALITY OF CREAMERY BUTTER. 3 



boring cities which are not being adequately supplied by creameries 

 situated in the same sections, Creameries thus situated are obliged 

 to ship their product to large centers of population in the Eastern 

 States or to some important storage and distributing center. New 

 York, Chicago, and San Francisco are the most important market 

 centers of this kind. Even those creameries which sell a large por- 

 tion of their output in the cities in which they are located are obliged 

 to find other market outlets where the local production is insufficient 

 for the current trade demands. Boston is such an outlet for some 

 of the large centralizing creameries of the Middle West. The accom- 

 panying map, figure 1, shows the location of the most important 

 wholesale butter markets in relation to the general geographical 

 location of a total of more than 4,000 creameries in the United States. 



IMPORTANT BASIC WHOLESALE BUTTER MARKETS. 



In the beginning of the creamery-butter industry of this country, 

 the town of Elgin,- 111., was the center of the butter-producing region 

 of the Middle West; and it was the place where representatives of 

 butter merchants in eastern markets made offers for the product of 

 the creameries in that section of the country. The prices at which 

 goods were sold on the Elgin Board of Trade were published, and 

 the quotations thus issued came to be regarded as the basic whole- 

 sale price of the American butter market. This was because most 

 of the creameries in this region did not have local market outlets 

 and therefore the major portion of "Elgin butter" was available 

 for distribution in every city that had satisfactory transportation 

 service and market connections with these creameries. As trans- 

 portation and refrigeration facilities were improved, the creameries 

 in the Elgin territory were able to compete for the markets of every 

 important city in the country ; and creameries in every part of the 

 country sold butter at prices which were in line with the Elgin 

 quotations. 



Until recently ^ the custom of basing the buying and selling prices 

 of creamery butter on the Elgin quotations still prevailed in many 

 sections of the country, though the demands for market milk in Chi- 

 cago and other neighboring centers of urban population had reduced 

 the butter production in the " Elgin District " so that comparatively 

 small quantities of butter were sold on the Elgin (butter) Board. 



Chicago has become the leading market center for creamerj^ but- 

 ter produced in the Middle Western States, because, besides being 

 a large consuming center, it has exceptionally good shipping and 

 storage facilities. Many creameries and jobbers in that market 



^ By action of the United States Food Administration tlie Elgin Board of Trade on 

 October 31, 1917, suspended the issuance of butter quotations. 



