The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1894-07-20
BUTTER FOR THE NAVY
ZIG CONTRACTS ARE MADE To
SUPPLY UNCLE SANS SHIPS
Fifty Thousand Pounds Purcnuse,f al
Time-How the Butter is Packed
and Inspected:

AHoONNNNNs
7 ASKED Paymaster- General Stew.
art of the United States Navy,
who is the Commissary General
{ for that branch of the public SER
vice, where he gets the butter that is
nsed by the officers and men on Uncle
Sans ships at sea. 80
"We advertise every spring in the
newspapers fer butter, just as we do
for any other kind Of supplies, " he
replied, "and then we send out speci-
fcations to the different manufactur-
ers throughout the country for the in
formation of bidders. These specif-
cations stipulate that we shall be fur
nished with extra creamery butter,
made in June or October, put up IN
tins and packed directly into the tins
at the place Of manufacture. The
tins must be made of the best charcoal
tin, redipped before soldering, each
tin to contain three pounds, the weight
of the tins not included. The tins
must be packed in sawdust, in sub
stancial wooden boxes, two dozen in
each, with two hoop-iron straps
around each box, one at each end.
Each tin must be carefully wrapped in
paper, the tops of the boxes fastened
with screws, and the tins and boxes
marked with the contents, the name Of
the contractor and the date Of the
packing. Directions for opening must
also be placed on each package, and
an instrument for opening the tins
must be furnished with each 500
pounds of butter. Contractors must
guarantee that the butter shall keep
in good condition for two years from
The date of delivery"
GLOW much do you usually buy,
and where does it come FROM"
eve usually call for about $4,000
pounds and give the contract to the
lowest responsible bidder, but we are
always very careful to ascertain if the
bidder is responsible and whether he
knows how to do the business, because
we do not want to send our boys to
sea with bad butter and no prospect
of getting better. A Boston firm has
furnished our supplies for several
years, but last year new company,
whose diaries are in Western New
York, put in lower bid and got the
business. So Before we gave them their
contract I sent out an inspector to ex-
anime their diaries and their process
of manufacture, which turned ont to
be satisfactory. After they had been
doing the work for a few months 1
happened to meet the Boston man,
and he asked me how the butter con-
tract was going on. replied that it
was all right and then learned that he
had sent a man out to watch his COM
petitor for several weeks to see
whether the work was being properly
DONE"
"Where are the Boston firms
dairiesP"
''They are situated somewhere in
Iowa, and all the packing is done out
there. They furnished the butter to
the navy SO long, and the result was
30 satisfactory, that we permitted
them to do it without inspection"
'Does the butter keep well for two
yearsP"
"After can of butter has gone
around the world and up and down
the tropics from one temperature to
another, and melted and hardened
three or four times, you cannot expect
it to be as good as it was when it came
out of the dairy, but it seldom gets
SO bad that one cannot eat it. In fact,
under the circumstances it is usually
very satisfactory.
"Have you ever used the foreign
butter-that which is packed in Hol-
land and Denmark for the tropical
trader"
Eyes, we have used good deal OF
it, but under the law we are compelled
to purchase all cur supplies in the
United States, except in emer
gencies. The Danish butter is very
fine. think I would rather take my
chances with it for long voyage than
the American product. They put it
up beautifully in glass jars, and their
method of packing is probably SUI
perior to that used in the United
States, but at the same time is much
more expensive. The Danish butter
packed in glass jars costs from sixty
to seventy cents pound, while our'
packed in tin costs from twenty-five
cents to twenty-five cents by the
quantity. We are now paying under
the present contract "a 4-l0 cents
pound. have never used the HOLLAND
butter, and know very little about it.
"Do the Danes and the Dutchmel
use a good deal of our oleomargarint
nd cottonsaed oil TO adulterate theil