an, it is evident that
they considered it only in the light of a curious substance, employed
partly as an article of food, partly as a medicinal salve, by certain
barbarous nations. About the second or third century, butter was but
little known to the Greeks and Romans, and there is no reason to believe
that it was ever generally used as an article of food by the classic
nations of antiquity; it is noteworthy, that the inhabitants of the
south of Europe even at the present time use butter in very small
quantities, which, indeed, is often sold for medicinal purposes in the
apothecaries' shops in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. From the foregoing
statements it is evident that the butter manufacture can lay no claim to
a classic origin; but that it took its rise in the countries of savage,
of semi-civilised, and barbarous nations. It is probable that the Greeks
were made acquainted with butter by the Thracians, Phrygians, and
Scythians; and that the knowledge of this substance was conveyed to
Rome by visitors from Germany. During the middle ages the practice of
butter-making spread throughout Northern, Central, and Western Europe;
but in many parts the commodity was very scarce and highly valued,
notwithstanding its being almost, if not quite, in a semi-fluid state,
instead of possessing the firm consistence of the butter of the present
day.

_Irish Butter._--Butter is produced in such large quantities in Ireland
that, after the home demand has been supplied, there remains a large
excess--so considerable, indeed, as to constitute one of the more
important of our few commercial staples. The precise quantity of butter
which, during late years, has been annually exported from Ireland is
unknown. The greater part of the commodity is sent to trans-Channel
ports; and, there being no duty on butter in the cross-Channel trade
since 1826, we have no means of accurately estimating the amount of our
exports to Great Britain. If, however, we refer to the statistics of our
commerce for the period beginning in 1787, and ending in 1826, we shall
find that the exportation of butter was enormous, and that a large
proportion of that commodity consumed by the army and navy was supplied
from the dairies of Ireland. During the three years ended on the 5th of
January, 1826, the average annual amount of butter exported was as
follows:--

cwts.

To Great Britain 441,226
To foreign countries