Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-04-15
That Buttor Man.


your correspondent, 'ENothing
More" feels it his duty to tell the
good citizens of Knox County and
adjacent counties of their ignorance
about butter-making. Ny i'm
preston is, that his knowledge OF
the art of butter-making is about
equal to Horace Greeley's knowl-
edge of practical farming. That
the butter market is not what 1t
ought to be is certainly true.
There are sundry causes for the
present quality of butter now on the
market. Town people are not the
only ones who have cause to COM
plain about the price and quality of
butter. know something of but
ter-making and selling practically.
I dare say if the people of Knox
vile had to make their own butter
or do without for about five years,
and then they had an opportunity to
buy some again, they would not 60
to the market>house about the close
of market hours, stick their dainty
little clean q fingers into every
body's butter-make disparaging
remarks about the price and quality
of the same-turn up their noses
at farmers (for marketing) and
spend several hours racing around
Market Square, and elsewhere, try
ing to get good butter at mean butts
ter prices. The consumers are as
much to blame for the nauseating
article put upon the market as the
producers. If the people of Knox
vile are tired of inferior butter at
low prices, let them raise their
money sights little, and they will
get an abundance of the finest
quality. Just as long as premium
is offered for a mean article, the
best will be shut out of market and
the inferior be in demand. Many
farmers have made engagements in
the city for superior butter, and not
unfrequently have customers broken
their contracts to feast upon
cheaper article.
Consumers have forced the best
butter producers out of the market
by their insolence and practical
preference for the fve1cents-a-
pound article, and they ought to
swallow the dose like Socrates did
the cup of hemlock, freely. Ihave
but little sympathy for a man who
will stand whining all day in a
mud-hole only knee deep and not
try to extricate himself, and still
less for class of consumers who
want kings food at pauper prices.
Is good butter in demand? Your
correspondent says that ga grocery
dealer who will purchase nothing
but first rate article will not only
receive the spontaneous gratitude of
our citizens, but will build up
frst-class business" / know of
some of Knoxville's best grocery
dealers who tried the gentleman's |
pet theory last summer and most |
signally failed in the noble enter
prise. They engaged the best of
butter and used refrigerators to pre-
serve it, and they were not patron
lied, but starved out of the bust
ness. Now who will try it? Come
to the front, thou martyr of mean
butter Well, l fancy ''forcing our
careless and slovenly butter makers
to reform their ways" will be an
arduOus task, and I very seriously
doubt whether a man who, as cir
cuit>rider, has eaten so many chick
ems and much free butter, and one
who has been boss Granger for the
last ten years and at the head of our
agricultural affairs, is the proper
person to reform poor butter
who have been under his
SO long, and yet un-
worthy to be his servants or supply
him with butter.
Master, put your heel upon those
of your training and crush them into
mother earth! Try Granger butter
and see how it does.
Your readers, after perusing that
article about Miserable Butter" if
they knew no better, would be
forced to the conclusion that the
lady mentioned in that article was
the only respectable butter maker
in East Tennessee, or at least near
Knoxville. RALPH.