BUTT. (1) (From the Fr. botte, boute; Med. Lat. butta, a wine vessel), a cask for ale or wine, with a capacity of about two hogsheads. (2) (A word common in Teutonic languages, meaning short, or a stump), the thick end of anything, as of a fishing-rod, a gun, a whip, also the stump of a tree. (3) (From the Fr. but, a goal or mark, and butte, a target, a rising piece of ground, &c.), a mark for shooting, as in archery, or, in its modern use, a mound or bank in front of which are placed the targets in artillery or musketry practice. This is sometimes called a "stop-butt," its purpose being to secure the ground behind the targets from stray shots. The word is used figuratively of a person or object at which derision or abuse are levelled.
BUTTE, the largest city of Montana, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Silver Bow county. It is situated in the valley of Deer Lodge river, near its head, at an altitude of about 5700 ft. Pop. (1880) 3363; (1890) 10,723; (1900) 30,470, of whom 10,210 were foreign-born, including 2474 Irish, 1518 English-Canadians, and 1505 English; (1910 census) 39,165. It is served by the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound, the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific, and the Oregon Short Line railways. Popularly the name "Butte" is applied to an area which embraces the city, Centerville, Walkerville, East Butte, South Butte and Williamsburg. These together form one large and more or less compact city. Butte lies in the centre of the greatest copper-mining district in the world; the surrounding hills are honey-combed with mines, and some mines are in the very heart of the city itself. The best known of the copper mines is the Anaconda. The annual output of copper from the Butte district almost equals that from all the rest of the country together; the annual value of copper, gold and silver aggregates more than $60,000,000. Although mining and its allied industries of quartz crushing and smelting dominate all other industries in the place, there are also foundries and machine shops, iron-works, tile factories, breweries and extensive planing mills. Electricity, used in the mines particularly, is brought to Butte from Cañon Ferry, 75 m. to the N.; from the plant, also on the Missouri river, of the Helena Power Transmission Company, which has a great steel dam 85 ft. high and 630 ft. long across the river, and a 6000-h.p. substation in Butte; and from the plant of the Madison River Power Company, on Madison river 7½ m. S.E. of Norris, whence power is also transmitted to Bozeman and Belgrade, Gallatin county, to Ruby, Madison county, and to the Greene-Campbell mine near Whitehall, Jefferson county. In 1910 Butte had only one large smelter, and the smoke nuisance was thus abated. The city is the seat of the Montana School of Mines (1900), and has a state industrial school, a high school and a public library (rebuilt in 1906 after a fire) with more than 32,000 volumes. The city hall, Federal building and Silver Bow county court house are among the principal buildings. Butte was first settled as a placer mining camp in 1864. It was platted in 1866; its population in 1870 was only 241, and for many years its growth was slow. Prosperity came, however, with the introduction of quartz mining in 1875, and in 1879 a city charter was granted. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 Butte's increase in population was 184.2%.
BUTTE (O. Fr. butte, a hillock or rising ground), a word used in the western states of North America for a flat-topped hill surrounded by a steep escarpment from which a slope descends to the plain. It is sometimes used for "an elevation higher than a hill but not high enough for a mountain." The butte capped by a horizontal platform of hard rock is characteristic of the arid plateau region of the west of North America.
Plant of Ranunculus bulbosus, showing determinate inflorescence.
BUTTER (Lat. butyrum, Gr. βούτυρον, apparently connected with βοῦς, cow, and τυρός, cheese, but, according to the New English Dictionary, perhaps of Scythian origin), the fatty portion of the milk of mammalian animals. The milk of all mammals contains such fatty constituents, and butter from the milk of goats, sheep and other animals has been and may be used; but that yielded by cow's milk is the most savoury, and it alone really constitutes the butter of commerce. The milk of the various breeds of cattle varies widely in the proportion of fatty matter it contains; its richness in this respect being greatly influenced by season, nature of food, state of the animals' health and other considerations. Usually the cream is skimmed off the surface of the milk for making butter, but by some the churning is performed on the milk itself without waiting for the
separation of the cream. The operation of churning causes the rupture of the oil sacs, and by the coalescence of the fat so liberated butter is formed. Details regarding churning and the preparation of butter generally will be found under Dairy and Dairy Farming.
BUTTERCUP, a name applied to several species of the genus Ranunculus (q.v.), characterized by their deeply-cut leaves and yellow, broadly cup-shaped flowers. Ranunculus acris and R. bulbosus are erect, hairy meadow plants, the latter having the stem swollen at the base, and distinguished also by the furrowed flower-stalks and the often smaller flowers with reflexed, not spreading, sepals. R. repens, common on waste ground, produces long runners by means of which it rapidly covers the ground. The plants are native in the north temperate to arctic zones of the Old World, and have been introduced in America.
BUTTERFIELD, DANIEL (1831-1901), American soldier, was born in Utica, New York. He graduated at Union College in 1849, and when the Civil War broke out he became colonel of the 12th New York militia regiment. On the 14th of May 1861 he was transferred to the regular army as a lieutenant-colonel, and in September he was made a brigadier-general U.S.V. He served in Virginia in 1861 and in the Peninsular campaign of 1862, and was wounded at Games' Mill. He took part in the campaign of second Bull Run (August 1862), and in November became major-general U.S.V. and in July 1863 colonel U.S.A. At Fredericksburg he commanded the V. corps, in which he had served since its formation. After General Hooker succeeded Burnside, Butterfield was appointed chief of staff, Army of the Potomac, and in this capacity he served in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns. Not being on good terms with General Meade he left the staff, and was soon afterwards sent as chief of staff to Hooker, with the XI. and XII. corps (later combined as the XX.) to Tennessee, and took part in the battle of Chattanooga (1863), and the Atlanta campaign of the following year, when he commanded a division of the XX. corps. His services were recognized by the brevets of brigadier-general and major-general in the regular army. He resigned in 1870, and for the rest of his life was engaged in civil and commercial pursuits. In 1862 he wrote a manual of Camp and Outpost Duty (New York, 1862). General Butterfield died at Cold Spring, N.Y., on the 17th of July 1901.
A Biographical Memorial, by his widow, was published in 1904.