48 



OLEOMAEGABINE. 



buy butterine is because it is just as good and a great deal cheaper 

 than butter. One grade of butterine we make in our factory costs 14 

 cents a pound; add to this 8 cents additional tax, and you bring it to 

 within 3 cents of the cost of Elgin creamery. Butterine is used 

 almost exclusively by the poorer class of people. It retails all over 

 the West at from 12| to 15 cents a pound for low grade, and 18 to 20 

 cents a pound for high grade. We speak of the West because we are 

 more familiar with that section. 



The CHAIRMAN. What makes the difference in the grades? 



Mr. MILLER. There is a difference in the materials used. In some 

 grades we put more creamery butter than we do in others. 



The CHAIRMAN. That is the main difference, is it the quantity of 

 butter that is put in ? 



Mr. MILLER. Yes, sir. 



Instead of killing our industry, we are perfectly willing that you 

 should enact any law whatsoever which will prevent fraud, providing the 

 tax is not increased or the privilege denied us of making it attractive 

 in appearance. We favor the Wads worth or the substitute bill, which 

 we considered in the House, or any other bill regulating the marking 

 or branding of our product, so that it can not be sold for butter, and 

 we will assist the Internal-Revenue Department in enforcing same to 

 the letter. 



At this juncture we would like to introduce as evidence an article 

 from Experiment Station Record, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, on the nutritive value of oleomargarine: 



4 C THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF MARGARIN COMPARED WITH BUTTER. 



E. Bertarelli (Eiv. Ig. e San. Pull., 9 (1898), Nos. 14, pp. 538-545; 

 15, pp. 570-579). Three experiments with healthy men are reported 

 in which the value of margarin and butter was tested when consumed 

 as part of a simple mixed diet. In one experiment the value of a mix- 

 ture of olive oil and colza oil, which is commonly used in Italy in the 

 neighborhood of Turin, was also tested. The author himself was the sub- 

 ject of one of the tests. He was 24 years old. The subjects of the 

 other tests were 2 laboratory servants, one 27 years old, the other 32 

 years old. The coefficients of digestibility and the balance of income 

 and outgo of nitrogen in the different experiments were as follows: 



Digestion experiments with margarin, butter, and oil. 



