PRICES AND QUALITY OF CREAMERY BUTTER. 11 
TABLE 3.—A comparison of prices at which different grades of butter and butter 
- substitutes were sold in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, and 
Minneapolis. 
[Prices are expressed in margins of differences between highest New York quotations for Extras and the 
prices actually paid by retailers and consumers. | 
New York. Philadelphia. 
Average price Average price 
. paid above or paid above or 
Kind or grade. Number| below New York | Average |Number| below New York Average 
of lots Extras. margins| of lots Extras. margin 
in- of in- of 
spected. profit.1 | spected. profit.t 
By re- | By con- By re- | By con- 
tailer. | sumer. tailer. | sumer. 
Cents. Cents. Cents. Cenés. Cents. Cents. 
URGTAS epee eee oc pact oeee oe 54 3.8 9.1 5. 2 35 5. 4 2, 6.6 
IBIS GS pense eee ye aaa 80 2.6 6.6 4.3 35 3.7 8.8 6.1 
Seconds). 6 s22 45: se ee 28 1.0 3.9 3. 8 24 .4 2:3 5.0 
Specialjbrandss2..... 225-25" 23 15. 4 21.9 6.5 34 14.2 23.6 6.9 
Warclassed aasaccemye 2 heeertee. 8 2.9 6.9 4.6 9 3. 8 9.3 (ok 
Motalsi ese cts pss cia 193 3.6 8.0 4.7 137 Tod 11.9 6.0 
EAROGESS octet ee am iancterarte 5| — 4.4 aD ATE rao k wii al Stave ioe | i aeacto ee sil earner 
Oleomargarin@s- 22s. acc se aeels 12 | —12.6 — 6.7 5.8 4) —11.5 | — 6.9 6.1 
Chicago. Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
{ 
xtrastee va. grower ies... 2< 14 ibm 3.0 4.5 37 1.3 6.4 5.4 
Mirstome fee hin SPeRE LTT 159 3 3.9 3.5 ak) pene fs 4.5 4.8 
Sonn hi ses ae a 107 | — .5 1.9 3.3 10) | —=.352 1.6 4.5 
Wrclassed=2 fa FI OE 24)— .3 33 3.4 39 | — 1.7 4.4 5. 4 
Motalsies = 434.22 1S fF 213 | + .05 3.0 3.9 365 | — 1.14 4.12 | 4. 86 
Processes ae es os, 7 aes sh one ae 2 eno = 4189 5.0 
Oleomargarine.....-.........| NIP wae Se oeee a Gabeeeoe 26 | —14.4 | — 8.9 5. 2 
1Since both cost and selling prices were not obtained on some lots of butter the averages of prices and 
Margins of profit do not always check. 
Table 3 may not represent accurately the general differences in 
values of different grades of butter at all seasons of the year, because 
market demands and prices for different grades usually vary in 
accordance with changing conditions of the market supply. It is a 
noteworthy fact, however, as has been stated (p. 9), that the present 
published market quotations are not based on the sales records of a 
large number of representative lots of different grades of butter and 
that the open sales on exchange constitute a very small part of the 
total wholesale transactions, and that the prices applying to the bulk 
of the daily market transactions are based rather upon these published 
quotations. 
RETAIL PRICE LEVELS. 
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CITIES DUE TO SPECIAL CONDITIONS. 
A general correspondence of wholesale butter prices in the large 
distributing centers of the United States is shown in figure 2. Tables 
1 and 2 show that the published wholesale quotations upon which the 
price curves in figure 2 are based may not present an accurate com- 
