Trend of the Butter Industry in the United States and Other Countries

Excerpts from the report: The foregoing charts are subject to many interpretations of varied character. Of the deductions applying to the dairy industry of the United States, however, the following are of particular interest: 1. Farm buttermaking reached its maximum production about 1900. The present trend indicates that it will become a less and less important factor in the Nation's butter supply, being superseded by the factory product. 2. Production of factory butter in the United States shows a more rapid general upward trend than is observed in any foreign country from which dependable butter figures have been obtained. 3. Production of renovated butter in the United States is declining. This condition evidently results from reduced supplies of low-quality farm butter, the chief product from which renovated butter is made. 4. Butter made in the United States is a very small factor in the international butter trade. More than 99 per cent of our butter business has been entirely domestic, except in the last three years. 5. The United Kingdom and Germany were the principal butter-importing nations, and Europe in the last decade has been unable to supply its own butter needs. Shortly before the war, Siberia, Australia, and New Zealand supplied most of the butter which Europe imported. 6. The export-butter business of nearly all countries shows noticeable fluctuations in short periods of time, indicating that the balance between domestic supplies and the profitable foreign outlet is delicate. 7. Well-known facts considered in connection with the charts show that high quality is essential to a large export trade. In Denmark, which before the war had the largest butter business in the world, the quality was high. It may be added that her stringent laws controlled the quality of export butter. 8. Information supplementary to the charts shows also that high quality and a high per capita consumption generally are found together, as also are low quality and low consumption. 9. Since consumption is depressed by high prices, it is apparent, in connection with the quality influences discussed, that high per capita consumption is influenced by both quality and price. 10. Briefly, a general improvement in the quality of butter in the United States will help to strengthen the domestic market, and with enlarged production will put this country in a better position to increase its export trade.