=UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS= COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA COMPARISON OF WOODS FOR BUTTER BOXES _By_ G. D. TURNBOW [Illustration: Proper method of packing cartoned butter in 60-pound boxes] BULLETIN No. 369 August, 1923 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY 1923 COMPARISON OF WOODS FOR BUTTER BOXES BY G. D. TURNBOW Butter boxes used in shipping and storing butter in California, are usually made of spruce which is largely shipped in from other states particularly from Washington and Oregon. With the recent war, however, there came an acute shortage of spruce on the Pacific Coast with a corresponding increase in price. The commercial manufacturers did some work in an attempt to find a substitute for spruce, but the trade did not readily accept a change. There was a demand from both the lumber and the butter interests for investigation to find a suitable substitute for spruce. The production of spruce is somewhat limited in California, but there is an abundance of white fir and a limited amount of cottonwood available. However, the creamerymen have not used white fir and cottonwood to any extent for butter containers, on account of the belief that these materials would impart a wood flavor to the butter. Inasmuch as nearly all of the butter made in this State is shipped or stored in wooden containers, the use of white fir or cottonwood, would mean first, a material saving to the butter manufacturers in marketing expense, and second, an opportunity for the lumber interests to use a large amount of raw material already available in California, which heretofore had been of little commercial value or use. BUTTER ABSORBS ODOR The volatile fats in butter have the property of absorbing odors, which often results in an undesirable flavor. Great care then must be exercised in keeping butter from coming in contact with materials that will impart a foreign flavor. Butter need be exposed to foreign odors only a short length of time before the flavor is permanently affected. Experiments[A] were conducted, therefore, to determine whether white fir or cottonwood would impart a flavor to the butter and also to determine the possibility of storing butter in cubes and marketing it in 60-pound cases when these woods were used. [A] This experiment was suggested by Mr. M. B. Pratt, Deputy State Forester. Through his coöperation, all box material was furnished by the Swayne Lumber Company of Oroville and the Capitol Box Factory of Sacramento. CUBE BUTTER IN COLD STORAGE