The Butter Paradox

It is a rather singular fact that our market is supplied with butter almost exclusively from California. There is no country on the continent better adapted to dairying purposes than this, and the shipping of butter from California, or even Oregon, to this Territory is analogous to sending coals to New Castle. On enquiring of one of our leading merchants as to the probable demand and price of butter during the coming season, he informed us that butter was likely to be high on account of the drought in California, as the market there controlled ours altogether. All of our butter, he added, comes from California; what little is produced here doesn't amount to a drop in the bucket. Our rich bottoms make the finest grazing lands in the world; honey-suckle, clover, and herds-grass grow everywhere in our rich valleys, with luxuriance hardly surpassed by the rich meadows of Kentucky. Still, most of our farmers are letting all these natural advantages pass for naught. They seem to believe that their farms can be turned to no other account than to produce great crops of roots and hay each season, and with these products our market is constantly glutted. They could, if they would, drive the California butter from our market by producing a better article at less price, and make money by doing so.