by Paul S. Gillies, Esq. RUMINATIONS The Legal History of Vermont Butter


The whole idea, originally, was convert- ing milk into something else, something that would not spoil as fast as milk. So we have butter and cheese. Butter comes from cream, which contains butterfat and butter- milk. You churn cream to separate the two, and there you have it—a semi-solid, spread- able, yellow mass of animal fat. It’s porta- ble and it lasts, without melting, in northern climes, and, aside from its own nutritional value, it improves the taste and digestibil- ity of what we eat. Pass the butter, please. You wouldn’t think of the law when you


are spreading butter on your baked pota- to, but it’s there nonetheless. The law is in everything. Butter has served as the sauce for dozens of lawsuits, statutes, and regu- lations that sought to protect the dairy in- dustry and the consumer. Butter made Ver- monters a good income, particularly at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1900, Vermont butter was the most profitable cash crop in the state.1


At first, butter was made on the farm. Aside from home use, butter served as a medium of exchange, in times before there was money in circulation, carrying many Vermonters through hard times. It was por- table, and profitable. But it was also liable to spoil. Farmers brought their butter to market once a year, after storing it in barns and cellars, and rancid butter and sharp cheese were common disappointments.2 As market opportunities opened up, farm- ers understood the need to industrial- ize butter-making, to ensure standards for milk and the production of butter for qual- ity and taste. The first Vermont creamery opened in 1857 in Wells, and through the rest of the nineteenth century about half of all Vermont farmers conformed to what was known as the “industrial system” of produc- ing butter, through local creameries, often organized as cooperatives.3 Ivan C. Weld’s A Talk to the Creamery Boys of Vermont was published in the 1908 Annual Report of the Vermont State Board of Agriculture.4


Weld heralded the industry.


“Creamery butter constitutes one of the principal agricultural products of Vermont. Its production and sale is directly responsi- ble for a large measure of the general pros- perity of the State. Furthermore, Vermont butter is a product in which every true Ver- monter takes a peculiar pride and interest.” But his tone changed to one of caution. The competition is so keen, particularly from the west, he said, that every butter maker must guard against “habitual carelessness,


8


and a failure to fully realize his responsibil- ity in the matter of cleanliness, low temper- ature, and prompt delivery of a perishable food product.” Creameries increased the production of milk and the success of farms. They also converted dairying into an annual industry, where previously cows were allowed to dry up in the winter. The general condition of the farm improved. Silos first became pop- ular during the 1880’s to store feed for the cows over the winter.5


In 1899, Vermont


produced twenty-two million pounds of butter in its creameries. Private farms made an additional eighteen million pounds.6


To-


tal milk production rose to 142 million gal- lons that year, from the state’s 270,197 dairy cows—nearly four times that of New Hampshire and nearly twice that of Maine.7 What made creameries productive were two inventions: the centrifugal separator and the Babcock Tester to measure the but- terfat content in milk, invented in Sweden and first introduced in 1890 in the U.S.8 The separator was introduced in Vermont in 1884 and used on the farm to separate whole milk into skim and cream, so that the creamery could make butter from the cream, reducing transportation costs, low- ering the manufacturing costs, and improv- ing the quality of the butter produced at the creamery.9


of the world in 1894, and its creamery was said to make 25,000 pounds a day.10


St. Albans was the butter capital But


the good times passed, and by 1927, an- nual production of butter in Vermont fell to about four million pounds.11


It fell to com-


petition from other states and from imita- tion butter.


Just how important was butter to Ver- monters? One of the reasons that Alene Gilman wanted to leave Mount Ida School for Girls in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1922 was butter-related. Alene only stayed three days, and her evidence in defense of the school’s attempt to collect the annual tu- ition from her father included testimony from Alene that “the food was cold; that for breakfast there was served cereal, muf- fins, and coffee, for dinner, sausage, salad, or stew. Butter was not always served. The soup was made with carrots … ”12


It wasn’t


easy being away from home. Statutory History of Butter


Consumerism was generations away, but


after the Civil War, concerns about public health brought greater statutory control


THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2013


over the dairy industry. Dilution of milk was a crime in Vermont from 1865.13


A person who knowingly sells, sup- plies or brings to be manufactured to a butter or cheese manufactory in the state, milk diluted with water, or adul- terated, or milk from which cream has been taken, or keeps back part of the milk known as “striplings;” or know- ingly brings or supplies milk to a but- ter or cheese manufactory that is taint- ed or partly sour from want of care in the keeping of strainers, or vessels in which said milk is kept; or a butter or cheese manufacturer who knowing uses or directs his employees to use cream from the milk brought to said butter or cheese manufacturers, with- out the consent of the owners there- of, shall forfeit not more than one hun- dred dollars, and not less than twenty- five dollars, to be recovered in an ac- tion founded upon this statute, before a justice, in the name and for the ben- efit of those upon whom such fraud is committed.14


A more comprehensive regulatory


scheme emerged in 1888, to protect the consumer and, incidentally, the creamery.15 Fraudulent marking of butter or cheese as “creamery butter or cheese” when it wasn’t manufactured at a creamery, was declared a crime. Farmers were required to label their products “private creamery,” as long as they listed their name on each package.16 The new law also defined “standard milk” as containing “not less than twelve and one-half per cent of solids, or not less than nine and one-fourth total solids exclusive of fat, except for the months of May and June, when it shall contain not less than twelve per cent of total solids.”17


Amendments in


1894 set the standard for milk in use in all creameries at four percent butter fat con- tent.18


buttery, for the sake of the public. Creameries had to be licensed begin- ning in 1906.19


The commissioner of agri-


culture issued the license after reviewing and approving the articles of association and bylaws, including a list of all associates. Creameries were required to submit quar- terly reports of assets, liabilities, income, and disbursements, and monthly state- ments of the quality of milk and cream de- livered to the creamery, showing the results of tests for the number of pounds of butter


www.vtbar.org State government had entered the


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