The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-03-04

OF LQ9 CQSrl6SLOu X W. 1OSl, Oh CouISj
1892, 80 cents; 1893, Is cents; 1894, 261
cents; 1895, % cents, and in 1896, 81 cents
Only one week ago this butter sold at 10
cents, the lowest winter prico since Elgin
butter has been on the market. Last
Fridays Price Current quotes rolls, fresh,
common to good ct 8a10 cents, and l feel
safe in saying that our average country
butter would not find many purchasers
at 10 cents in the leading butter market
of the country to-day.
From the following letter your readers
may infer as to the critical judgment OF
the New York produce dealers:
NEW YORK, January IA, 1896.
J. VI. Hart-Dear Sir: Enclosed we
hand you sales for the tub of butter you
shipped US on the 1st instant. We made
q very careful examination of the quality
of this butter and also called in one or
two judges Of butter and had them pass
judgment.
In reply will say that the grain of the
butter was all right, the color was all
right and the style of packing was all
right. While it was not high sailed, the
salt was just a little gritty and did not
seem to be we'll enough dissolved, or in
other words it was not as smooth as we
usually find in our best creamerieE. The
flavor was not high and it was not exactly
clean favored, so that the only i'm prove
raent we could suggest in the butter
would be to have it high and clean flavor
ed, and salt about as this tub YVES, but
have the salt 80 it would not show gritty.
The day this butter sold top price for
the finest that comes was "a cents, as you
will notice by the Price Current we en-
close you. Yours truly,
JAMES ROWLAND o. Co.
The accompanying account sales shows
that the butter consigned this house sold
for % cents, while the finest on the market
brought "a cents, as above stated
A second shipment was forwarded, and
1s cents was the price obtained. Accom-
panying the account sales was the follow
ing:
NEW YORK, February l, 1896.
j. w. Hart-Dear Sir: Enclosed we
hand you sales for your two tubs of but
ter and check for balance due you.
Twenty cents is now top for the finest
that comes. This would have brought
top price lift had shown q little more
flavor. The butter was nicely made,
everything was all o. K, excepting it
what it takes to bring the extreme top.
Yours truly,
JAMES ROWLAND q Co.
will not attempt to explain why our
butter failed to get right up in the front
rank, but after we have been there, ex-
plantations may be in order. I will say
this much-there is nothing the matter
with our soil, our feeding stuffs or our
COWS that prevents us making with profit
to ourselves q grade of butter that will
lead the butter markets of this country
in quality and price. AS your Charleston
correspondent has truly stated. the great
es: cause of the small demand and low
price of our country butter ia the rela-
lively poor quality Of the larger proper
ton of it offered for sale. Lack Of skill
in handling the milk is largely RESPONSE
bio for this state of affairs. Just n
point in this connection, the almost uni
versal custom throughout the South TO
churn the entire milk. We have expert
mented along this line in every way we
could think Of, and have come to the con-
clusion that it is impossible to make
good, merchantable butter by %churniug
the whole milk. For a fuller discussion
of this point your readers are referred to
our experiment bulletin, Nc. 19, O copy of
which may be obtained by addressing the
Agricultural Experiment Station, Glenn
son College, S. @.
Another and q far more serious cause of
the inferior quality of our butter, q fault
characteristic of the cotton growing
States, is due to the large quantities OF
cotton seed and cotton seed products fed
to COWS. Cotton seed, in any form, when
fed invariably tends TO produce hardness
in the butter fat in other words, causes
the butter to have a high melting point.
The butter can scarcely be .liquefied by
bringing it to the temperature Of the
body it sticks like beeswax to the top of
the mouth andi is necessarily more difficult
to digest than the easily liquefed butter
made where little or no cotton seed is fed.
I do not advocate the total abandonment
of cotton seed as q feed for mich cows.
Both on account ofits cheapness compared
with other purchased feeds and its effect
in making the butter stand up in hot
weather I would advise its limited use,
and that in connection with feeding stuffs
having q tendency to make the butter
soft, oily and of low melting point.
The great mass of butter consumers in
the South are not educated to the point
where they object to cotton seed butter,
having been used to it all their lives. A
correspondent at Lanford's, S. c., writes
me that he feeds entirely through the
winter months on cotton seed bulls and
meal; lie feeds to an S00-pound cow %
pounds of bulls and s pounds of meal.
His herd averages him over 300 pounds
of butter per cow per annum, and the
butter he sells in Augusta at 20 cents net.
However, he is not entirely satisfied with
his present practice, for he adds: I now
have q silo full of sorghum ensilage, and
shall commence to feed it soon.
On the other hand a Charleston friend
writes me as follows: "One of the Char
lesion grocers tells me that he has been
butter from Chester and Aiken,
but has cancelled his orders because his
complain that the butter will
not melt nicely for cooking" From
these facts the loyal Charlestonian will
conclude that the taste Of his native city
in this particular ia more discriminating
than that Of the Augusta people. The
following is the testimony of a gentleman
at the head of a well known Ladies' Col.
lege in a letter of January l6 last: ~
have departed from the traditional feed
here Cotton seed meal end hulls
and nv butter is superior accordingly
It has color and odor and flavor almost
like springtime. My girls eat a great
deal more of it than when I bought it all.
The cheapness of cotton seed meal and
bulls Is a strong temptation to make use
of them very largely in feeding mich
but the effects are as easily detected
as merino wool would be, and no artitlce
on the part of the butter-maker can o n
ceal the effects Of such excessive use.
can we feel certain that heavy feeding
cotton seed Is not injurious to the
health of the cow, when it is 30 rapidly
fatal to hogs and calves.
In every step in its manufacture skill
is necessary if the butter is to be of high
quality and meet with ready sale. Skill
is also required in getting a price COM
mensurate with the value Of the butter.
1t is not usual that the highest prices are
by trading good butter at the
country store, where quality cuts no fig
ure in the price.
In the towns and villages Of the State
good customers may be secured by the
living near and retained If they
can always be prompt in filling their con-
tracts with good butter. Another good
plan is to consign butter to q reliable
commission house. A considerable guam
of butter is shipped from Seneca to
3 commission house in Charleston. The
commission merchants of the North sell
butter for q commission of 5 per cent.
Possibly the smaller quantities handled
and the greater expense for ice in sum-
mer explain why u commission men
charge q larger commission. If regular
can be made the commission
merchant he will soon have regular GUS
for that make Of butter, who will
i al g ~onrr- fhn- r. Ill