[Illustration: Yorkshire Cow.]
The various circumstances attending the introduction and use of butter
in antiquity, have been investigated by Beckmann with great learning and
industry. The conclusion at which he arrives is, “that butter was not
used either by the Greeks or Romans in cooking, as is everywhere
customary at present. We never find it mentioned by Galen or any other
ancient medical writer, as _food_, though they have spoken of it as
applicable to other purposes. No notice is taken of it by the Roman
epicure, Apicius, who wrote on cookery; nor is there anything said of it
in that respect by the authors who treat of agriculture, though they
have given us very particular information with respect to milk, cheese,
and oil.
“This, as has been remarked by others, may be easily accounted for, by
the ancients having accustomed themselves to the use of good oil; and in
like manner butter is very little employed at present in Italy, Spain,
Portugal, and the southern parts of France.”--Butter is very extensively
used in this and most other northern countries; that of England and
Holland is reckoned the best.
The production and consumption of butter in Great Britain is very
great.--The consumption in the metropolis may, it is believed, be
averaged at about one half pound per week for each individual, being at
the rate of 26 lbs. a year; and supposing the population to amount to
1,450,000, the total annual consumption would (on this hypothesis) be
37,700,000 lbs. or 16,830 tons: but to this may be added 4,000 tons for
the butter required for the victualling of ships and other purposes,
making the total consumption in round numbers 21,000 tons, or 47,040,000
lbs., which, at 10_d._ per pound, would be worth 1,960,000_l._
The average produce per cow of the butter dairies is estimated by Mr.
Marshall at 168 lbs. a year; so that, supposing we are nearly right in
the above estimate, about 280,000 cows will be required to produce an
adequate supply of butter for the London market.
Butter made in hot countries is generally liquid. In India it is called
_ghee_, and is mostly prepared from the milk of buffaloes[1]: it is
usually conveyed in duppers or bottles made of hide, each of which
contains from ten to forty gallons. _Ghee_ is an article of considerable
commercial importance in many parts of India.
The Arabs are the greatest consumers of butter in the world. Burckhardt
tells us, that it is a common practice among all classes to drink, every
morning, a cupful of melted butter or ghee; and they use it in an
infinite variety of other ways. The taste for it is universal, and even
the poorest individuals will spend half their daily income that they may
have butter for dinner, and butter in the morning. Large quantities are
annually shipped from Cosseir, Sonakin, and Massona, on the west coast
of the Red Sea, for Djidda and other Arabian ports.
We shall notice in our Supplementary number for this month the very
valuable publication, M’Culloch’s Dictionary of Commerce, from which the
above account is extracted.
[Illustration: Zebus: from Specimens in the Zoological Gardens.]
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Footnote 1:
The most common of the Indian breeds of the ox tribe is the _Zebu_, a
humped variety, of which the smallest specimens are not bigger than a
full-grown mastiff, while others are found almost as large as the
finest English cow. They are all useful, both as affording food, and
as beasts of burthen.
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