The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-09

butter could be shipped and kept COM
paratively well in them.
Butter tubs and firkins are not today
made from the best woods, and the cheap
ones are very frequensly made from such
woods as contaminate the butter, and
give it bitter and strange flavor. Not a
little OF the finest butter sent to market IS
ruined through contact with the wooden
packages. In addition TO this the wood alb
serbs the preserving and sweeting quail
ties from the butter, making 1t possible for
the butter TO spoil rapidly In warm wealth
er. This may be seen by turning the but
ter out of tub where it has stood for q
long time. Wherever the butter has come
in contact with the wood 1t has turned
white, and it must be scraped of before
butter is sold.
Butter that is shipped to other countries
always runs risk of spelling by being
packed IN the wooden tubs, or any other
material capable of absorbing the brine
and salt. Butter of a superior quality Is
ruined If packed in tubs made of poor,
cheap wood, and it is frequently damaged
if packed in the very best wooden tubs.
The price of the best wood makes 1t i'm
possible to manufacture tubs out OF it for
the small sum obtainable for butter hrklns
and tubs.
But there is loss in other ways as well.
There IS always more or less waste butter
in the tubs which must be scraped out and
thrown away or used for frying purposes.
This does not amount to much in each tub,
but when number are sent at once sew
eral pounds of this waste product Is found.
The loss from shrinkage is likewise con-
siderable. leakage and soakage allow
ance IS always made by law and this some
times amounts to considerable. Some Of
the tubs that come from the large
factories are made of such cheap
wood that dealers in the butter
dump out the product when it reaches
them and scrape off from the sides and
bottom frequently from two to four pounds
to rid 1t of woody flavor and package
taints. AS this Is generally charged to
the producer. it will be seen that nearly all
of these losses come directly home to the
dairyman. The possibility of these losses,
great or small, opens an avenue tor un-
scrupulous dealers to deduct more from
the leakage allowance than is true. They
can easily report losses which no man can
disprove.
Butter tubs and packages of the future
must be made out of material other than
wood. In supplying a few private Gus
toners with butter | have adopted plan
of my own, which seems to work we'll. l
have number of tin packages, holding
i've pounds each, made, and into these l
pack the butter for city use. Twenty OF
these are packed in strong wooden case
for shipment. The air space thus formed
between the wooden case and the tin
boxes protects the butter from heat and
air influences. | have found that butter
packed in this way keeps much longer and
better than when packed in tubs, and the
finest quality of the best butter is retained
indefinitely. 1t might well be matter of
consideration for dairymen to adopt some
such method of butter packing in the near
future. Tin is used for milking pals and
pans, and in nearly every part of the
country, and there seems to be no reason
why the butter should not be marketed in
the same way with a simple wooden box
to protect it. w. Z. FARMER.