March 1897.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



403 



little difference how it is neglected. The receptacles are 

 frequently left open, no attention is paid to the mixed contents, 

 and they are not sent away until full, or until the mixture 

 becomes so offensive that it must be got rid of. The one require- 

 ment of the package is that it should not leak and waste too 

 much, if the contents should melt to oil in transit. Economical 

 motives alone seem to have led to a reform in this regard, and 

 the Jadlers now send out what are called butter-stands to their 

 regular sources of supply, which are despatched to the factory 

 when filled. The ladlers grade the contents as best they can, 

 and make their own returns to the shippers, as to both weight 

 and quality. During the season of 1895, the average price paid 

 by ladlers for consignments from the three States referred to 

 was just about 5d. per pound, the consignors paying freight to 

 Omaha, or wherever the factory was located. Freight charges 

 probably averaged a farthing a pound. 



Efforts are being made by the ladlers to improve the quality 

 of their product by securing some degree of care in the collec- 

 tion and transportation of the country butter. Merchants are 

 encouraged to hire collectors to get the butter from the farms, 

 uncoloured and unsalted. 



The profit of the ladlers lies in intelligent grading and in 

 increasing the weight by salting, washing, and reworking ; also, 

 more or less, in the success of the various processes used in 

 eliminating rancidity, and restoring the semblance of grain and 

 flavour to the mass. The article resulting from these processes 

 is called butter and goes into the butter market. As a rule, 

 " ladles " are quoted in the Chicago market at about two-thirds 

 of the price of creamery butter, and at about four-fifths of that 

 of dairy butter of like grade, " extras," " firsts," or " seconds." 

 What is known as " imitation creamery " is, as a rule, nothing 

 but selections from the best of the ladled goods. 



Farm Mortgages in the United States. 



The annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture of the 

 United States for 1896 contains some interesting information 

 relating to the mortgage indebtedness of farmers in the several 

 States of the North American Union. 



It seems that out of each thousand farms in the United States 

 only 282 are mortgaged, and three-fourths of the money re- 

 presented by the mortgages upon them was for the purchase of 

 such farms, or for the execution of improvements. Seventy -two 

 of every hundred farms are absolutely free from mortgages or 

 other encumbrances, and it is estimated that the debts secured 

 by liens upon lands used for tillage and the production of crops 

 amount in the aggregate, after throwing out the mortgage debts 

 of railroads and other corporations, to less than one-sixth of 

 O 95711. D 



