( XXIY ) 
STATISTICS OF DAIRY PEODUCE. 
The following remarks relating to butter and cheese are ex- 
tracted from ' The Grocer ' : — 
Cork Butter Market. — The preamble of the Cork Butter Market 
Act passed last session sets forth the reasons why legislation was 
neces^ary, viz. the existence of abuses detrimental to the welfare 
of the trade; and the Act itself, beyond affiiming the right of 
traders to deal in all and every kind of butter (which was previously 
denied most stringently), did little more than refer all questions of 
reform to a Board of Trustees, 
To come to details of the actual working of the Market for the 
year, we find a very large decrease in the general receipts of the 
Market. This is accounted for variously. A reduction in the 
number of dairj- cattle, shortness of grass in consequence of an 
unusually dry summer, and the competition of surrounding markets 
for the finer quality butter, are some of the causes of the loss in 
receipts. But we understand that the establishment of factories in 
the Cork district has been the direct cause of a great quantity of 
butter being kept out of Cork Market this past year, which formerly 
had no other outlet. These factories, for the most part, are not 
worked on the Continental or American system. They are simply 
an improvement and extension of a system which is better known 
in the Cork locality as " cock-making : " that is, the butter is 
bought in small lumps from the farmers, and then mixed up with 
varying quantities of salt and water, according to the market in 
which it is intended for sale. During the past year several of the 
largest of the manufacturers in the west of Cork have shipped this 
butter direct to England ; from one town alone as many as 300 to 
400 packages of this butter were shipped weekly during the 
summer and autumn. This butter is sold on the private brand of 
the makers, and they were able to pay, during the season, a much 
higher price for the lump butter than was quoted in Cork Market 
for first quality. That this business will extend there is now no 
doubt whatever, unless Cork Market can offer the farmers a better 
inducement than it does at present. 
In quality, on the whole, there was an improvement during the 
year. By this wc mean that the butter shipped under each brand 
