PRICES AIS^D QUALITY OF CEEAMERY BXJTTEK. 21 



An important function of an efficient butter marketing system is to 

 effect such a distribution of the various grades of butter produced in 

 various parts of the country that the product of each factory may be 

 sold in the particular city or section of a city where it will bring the 

 highest return to the producer. Improvement in sources of market 

 information would facilitate such an equitable distribution of the 

 output of more than 4,000 creameries which are individually too small 

 to maintain their own sales organizations in distant markets. Under 

 the prevailing system of marketing country creamery butter, however, 

 market returns to creamer^Tnen are based upon market quotations 

 issued by market reporting agencies, and a method of grading which 

 is controlled by the wholesale butter merchants themselves. A sj^stem 

 of butter inspection and grading operated under the supervision of 

 the Federal Government,^ available to shippers of creamery butter 

 and wholesale and retail distributers, would tend to facilitate the mar- 

 ket distribution of creamery butter on an equitable quality basis. A 

 market-reporting service on creamery butter was recently established 

 by the Bureau of Markets of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture; and many creameries and wholesale market receivers are 

 relying upon the daily market reports issued as a basis for guiding 

 their marketing operations. The price reports ^ issued by the Bureau 

 of Markets are based upon actual sales of various lots of butter of 

 different grades of quality, and an average price is quoted for each 

 score rather than a range of prices covering the scores included within 

 the different market grades. (See Table 1.) 



These studies of quality and prices of creamery butter show that 

 the highest retail prices are paid for creamery butter which is sold 

 under a trade-mark or brand that is generally recognized among con- 

 sumers as a guaranty of uniform excellence of quality. Generally, 

 however, only those creameries which are located in large cities or 

 whose outputs are sufficient to enable them to establish their own mar- 

 keting organizations in distant centers of population have been able 

 to arrange to have their butter sold under their own distinctive 

 brands or trade-marks. The unusually high prices obtained for cer- 

 tain " special brands " of butter sold in Philadelphia and New York 

 suggest the possibility of increasing greatly the market returns of 



^Authority for establishing sucli an inspection service was provided for in H. R. 4188, 

 Sixty-fifth Congress, approved Aug. 10, 1917. 



- The Bureau of Markets' price reporting service on creamery butter was authorized 

 by Congress in H. R. 4188, Sixty-fifth Congress, which provided for " enlarging the 

 markets news service " of the Bureau of Markets as a war-emergency measure. Branch 

 offices have been established in the four important wholesale butter markets — Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago — and through these offices and others to be estab- 

 lished, daily butter-market bulletins showing both wholesale and jobbing pHces of 

 creamery butter in these markets, the cold-storage movement, and supplies of fresh 

 butter on the market are issued. These bulletins are distributed free to all who make 

 requests for them. 



