18 
BULLETIN 177, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BUTTER CONSUMPTION ON FARMS. 
Returns from this inquiry also indicate that the average person 
on the farm consumed a pound of butter every 10 days, or that the 
average farm family consumed over a half pound per day. If this 
average per family for the year be multiplied by the total number 
of farms reporting butter production, it would equal nearly 900,- 
000,000 pounds. An additional question was asked of those corre- 
spondents who made butter, namely, "How many quarts of milk 
does it require to make a pound of butter?" The average for the 
United States was 9.6 quarts; varying from 8.1 for the West South 
Central States to 10.7 for the West North Central. If the total sales 
of butter by farmers is added to the total home consumption as 
obtained above, and the result multiplied by the average number 
of quarts of milk necessary to produce a pound of butter, it shows 
that farmers use at home, for butter, over 12,000,000,000 quarts of 
milk annually, or over 40 per cent more than was reported by butter 
and cheese factories and condenseries to the Thirteenth Census. 
Table 11. — Butter consumption on farms. 
Average 
number of 
members 
per 
household. 
Average butter con- 
sumed. 
Farms 
reporting 
butter pro- 
duction. 
Estimated 
total con- 
sumption on 
farms. 
Geographic division. 
Per house- 
hold 
per year. 
Per capita 
per year. 
5.3 
4.6 
4.7 
5.4 
5.3 
5.5 
5.9 
6.2 
5.0 
Pounds. 
160 
182 
176 
210 
181 
190 
214 
222 
158 
Pounds. 
30 
40 
38 
39 
34 
35 
36 
36 
32 
Xumbcr. 
94,S58 
267,085 
802,909 
841,084 
772, 972 
820, 015 
705,549 
101, 777 
109,036 
Pounds. 
15,177,280 
Middle Atlantic 
48, 609, 470 
East North Central. . . 
141,311,984 
176,627,640 
West North Central 
139, 907, 932 
East South Central 
155,802,850 
West South Central 
150, 987, 486 
22,594,494 
17,227,688 
Total, United States 
5.3 
192 
36 
4,515,285 
868,246,824 
Table 12. — Consumption of milk in cities. 
Cities of 25,000 and over. 
Cities of 2,500 and over. 
Geographic division. 
Yearly 
per capita 
con- 
sumption. 
Estimated 
total con- 
sumption. 
Yearly 
per capita 
consump- 
tion. 
Estimated 
total con- 
sumption. 
New England 
Gallons. 
35. 709 
33.854 
29.379 
20. 030 
21. 428 
18.656 
17. 529 
24.974 
31. 781 
Gallons. 
115,874,669 
362,598,650 
185,551,154 
47,623,108 
40,379,095 
16,554,719 
17,106,358 
11,097,846 
54,116,115 
Gallons. 
35. 794 
33. 270 
25.397 
20. 888 
20. 677 
18.590 
17.519 
22. 369 
31.151 
Gallons. 
195,268,619 
456,576,620 
244,249,832 
80,914,180 
63,936,448 
Middle Atlantic 
East North Central 
West North Central 
South Atlantic 
East South Central 
29,264,917 
34, 292, 672 
West South Central 
21, 194, 874 
Pacific 
74,211,931 
Total, United States 
29.810 
850,901,714 
28. 151 
1,199,910,093 
