BUTTER, one of the most important of the secondary articles of necessity, and, next to corn and cattle, perhaps the most valuable source of agricultural wealth. In many countries it is also of great com mercial importance. All the butter that is produced in England is consumed at home, and a large quantity is imported besides from Ireland, Holland, and other countries. The consumption of butter an London is estimated by M'Culloch at 15,357 tons annually, of which 2000 tens are supplied to shipping. At 10d per lb. for 34,400,000 lbs., the value con sumed of this article amounts to 1,433,3331. The consumption per head in this esti mate is assumed to be 5 oz. weekly, or 16 lbs. per annum. The value of the butter consumed in Paris in 1842 (An nuaire of the Board of Longitude) was 443,3011., which, at 10d. per lb., would give a total consumption of above 104 million lbs. The population of London is about double that of Paris, but the habits of consumption of any particular article may differ very widely in the two capitals; and in the case of London all that can be done is to arrive at an esti mate which may approximate towards the truth. Of the total consumption of butter in the United Kingdom it would be useless to form a conjecture. When ever the manufacturing population is prosperous, the consumption is always enormously increased. Not being an ab solute necessary, it is natural that the con sumption of such an article as butter should diminish when the resources of the population are less abundant than usual.
For the five years ending 1825 the quantity of butter imported annually from Ireland was 422,883 cwts., and from foreign countries 159,332 cwts. In 1835 the imports from Ireland were 827,009 mtg., valued at 3,316,3061. ; and in 1836 the import of foreign butter was 240,738 cwts., making a total of 1,067,747 ewts., or 53,387 tons. The im ports from Ireland cannot be given for any year subsequent to 1835, but the im ports from foreign countries, within the last few years, have been as follows Cwt.& Cute.
1838 256,193 1841 277,428 1839 213,504 1842 175,197 1840 252,661 1843 151,996 About two-thirds of the foreign supply is usually imported from Holland.
In 1842 the imports were—from Den mark 5047 cwts. ; Germany 45,346 ; Hol land 112,778; Belgium 3996; British North America 3615; from the United States of North America 3769 cwts.; and small quantities arrived from France, the Channel Islands, and a few other places. In 1801 the duty on foreign butter was 2s. 9d per cwt and 3 per cent ad and in 1813, after several successive in termediate additions, it was 5s. If& per
cwt. The duty was raised to 20s. the ewt. in 1806, at which rate (with 5 per cent. added, making 21s. per cwt) it still continues ; but by the tariff of 1841 (5 & 6 Viet c. 47) the duty on butter from British possessions was fixed at 5s. the cwt (with 5 per cent. added, 5s. 3d.), and in the course of the following year the imports of colonial butter increased from 1971 meta. to 4843 cwts. The duty on foreign butter exceeds 2d. per lb., and in 1841 produced 262,6184 but in the following year, owing to a falling off in the imports, only 187,9211.
The butter exported from the United Kingdom is entirely the produce of Ire land, but the quantity is not separately distinguished from the exports of cheese, and cannot therefore be given. In 1843 the quantity of butter and cheese together exported was 71,130 cwts., valued at 253,3401. In 1842 the exports of the two commodities were 61,603 cwts., of which 23,858 were to the West Indies, 16,796 to Brazil, 8223 to Portugal, 4818 to the Australian Colonies, 1903 to the East In dies, 1465 to British North America, and the remainder in small quantities to other rtpas.
In the Dictionary of the Farm,' by the late Rev. W. L. Rham, it is said that, by paying sufficient attention to the minu tia) of the dairy, to the purity of the salt used, and especially to cleanliness, there is no reason why the rich pastures of England and Ireland should not produce as good butter as those of Holland, which now enjoys so deserved a pre-eminence for its batter. Mr. Rham gives the fol lowing information relative to the pro duction of butter .—" We may state that, on an average, four gallons of milk pro duce sixteen ounces of butter • and to make the feeding of cows for the dairy a profitable employment in England, a good cow should produce 6 lbs. of butter per week in summer, and half that quantity in winter, or, allowing for the time of calving, about 200 lbs. a year" (Art. But ter, Diet. of Farm). Mr. M'Gregor, in his valuable Commercial Statistics' (i. p. 897) states that a superior dairy farm in South Holland, on which 50 cows are kept, is expected to produce annually 4000 lbs. of butter and 9000 lbs. of cheese. The quality of dairy produce in Ireland has been greatly improved within the last few years, and both in that country and in England, in some districts, greater attention to the ininutke to which Mr. Rham alludes, would add considerably to the value at present obtained from the land.