154 THE BOOK OF BUTTER 



118. Retail packages. — The packages that go to the 

 consumer should be neat and pleasing in appearance. If 

 this butter is in prints, it should be wrapped in parchment 

 and packed in wooden or corrugated paper boxes. The 

 wooden packages should be lined with parchment paper. 

 When shipping long distances, and sometimes in supplying 

 a local trade, the prints should be placed in paper cartons 

 before being packed in the shipping box. 



Shrinkage. — The shrinkage of print butter is greater 

 than that of butter marketed in the larger packages, as 

 there is more surface. After a study of this subject 

 Pickerill and Guthrie ^ summarize their research in these 

 ^Yords : " The rate of loss depends principally on the 

 temperature and humidity of the storage room. 



" If the temperature is kept down to 50° F. and the 

 humidity is kept above 90 per cent, at least a month, and 

 perhaps much longer, will be required for the shrinkage 

 to approximate the limit set by law, provided the prints 

 are packed in boxes. 



" If the temperature is 60° F. or above, and the humidity 

 is 85 per cent or below, the shrinkage will approximate 

 the limit set by law in a space of ten days to two weeks, 

 even if the prints are packed in boxes. 



" The degree of shrinkage is not inversely proportional 

 to the weight of the wrapper used, as is generally sup- 

 posed." Paper weighing 20, 25, 30, 40, and 50 pounds 

 to the ream was tried. 



" The degree of shrinkage decreases to a consider- 

 able extent when the prints are placed in cartons. The 

 other two methods of packing, however — leaving the 



' Pickerill, H. M., and Guthrie, E. S., Two Factors Causing 

 Variation in the Weight of Print Butter, Cornell Univ. Agri. 

 Exp. Sta., Bui. 355, p. Ill, 1915. 



