The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-28
BEARING BUTTER.
BUTTER ALCHEMISTS.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE-wHAT MAKES But
TER CHEAP EAST, AND DEAR wEsT-HoME
INDUSTRY.
Now that the butter business is to be the
leading topic in this city for some time to
come, few facts of local interest not known
to every one may be of interest. In the first
place it is proper to note one or two curious
facts in relation to the market. Perhaps the
most remarkable one is, that just now a
good article of butter is worth more in the
western cities than in New York.
Good firkin butter there has been
down within a week to 80 cents
and quotes to-day at from thirty-three to
forty cents per pound, a very low figure for
that market, and below the ruling prices
here. So in st. Adams, the great butter
emporium of Vermont, the decline has been
rapid and constant for some weeks. Anoth-
or feature. While the retail prices in all the
western towns run to forty or fifty cents,
and there is a regular butter famine, the
large buyers who look, of course,
to the New York market, quote butter weak
and declining and are not willing to pay
hardly quarter of a dollar a pound. AT
the same time the wholesale dealers, who
supply the home consumption in this city,
are willing to pay almost any price asked
for decent article, and have lately been
sending to Iowa and Wisconsin in frantic
desperation to get little grease for Indian
apolis biscuit. The Sentinel has alluded
to these anomalies before in the market re-
ports.
FEW FACTS
will shed light on these curious aspects OF
the trade. There are in other western cities
and now in this city machines for the trans
mutation, not exactly by alchemy of all
pologies for butter into its golden article
such as old Job in the days of pros
perity used to wash his steps with,
or said he did. Everything that
bears the name of butter, white
gray and grizzly is now picked up by indus
| trious BUYERS at every cross road and all the
markets, such as Nashville, Louisville. In
dianapolis and other railroad towns, and put
through the machine. The bad quality oil
butter is due to several causes, but one oil
more Importance than is generally known is
the poor salt used by the ignorant and care
less makers. The first thing In process Of
reconstruction is to fill an immense trough
with all sorts of the gathered butter IN room
of high temperatures and when it is softened &C
work out OF it all the salt, butter nils
and every substance which it de
rived from farmers kitchens and in Its
/ travels. 1t is then sailed with pure anC
perfect article of Onondaga salt, and made
sweet. The next thing Is to cetor IL arti
ficislly with annatto, to give it thu proper
complexion supposed to be derived only
from the sweet and green pastures OF clover
The working is done instantly by an in
genious invention of Mr.. Dake
who will talk butter to us all in June. tn,
process is simply passing it through a wir,
serene. or sieve, which separates it by oat
act so as to relieve it of all fluids, and cher
by pressing together it is in order fef pack
ing in pals for the New York market, where
the smart manufacturer get bigh price 10
what he bought very chesp. NOW To-
TIE RESULT TO THE MARKET.
This thrifty business has cleared out, 81
to speak, the West of all its butter, and lef
Us almost destitute, for the business ha