166 OLEOMAKGAKINE. 



said, ( ' Thank God for oleomargarine. " Why ? Said I, t ' That is going 

 to bring up butter to a higher grade." Why, in the old days of twelve 

 or fifteen years ago, when the ladle butter came into our markets, we 

 called it bull butter. Invariably it was mushy, invariably it was soft, 

 invariably almost it was in lumps, in different colors, in globules, sway- 

 ing and straying like a fluid; and I bought samples of oleomargarine 

 and sent it to our men and said: " Gentlemen, unless you can make your 

 butter similar to oleomargarine, butter in this country is dead." Why, 

 it opened their eyes; and then, by George, when I sent them butterine, 

 I believe they called it, with creamery butter generally put into it, 

 that smelt like a summer rose compared to our creameries, and said: 

 "Unless you can make your creameries similar to that you might as 

 well go out of business, and give it up to this new product that has 

 come in," it was the means, which every butter man knows, of revolu- 

 tionizing butter. 



Mr. ADAMS. Oh, no; we do not know that. 



Mr. LESTRADE. I know it from a practical standpoint. You may 

 be a practical man but I know it. I have been there all my life. This 

 is a matter of bread and butter to me. 



The CHAIRMAN. Speak to the committee, please, Mr. Lestrade. 



Mr. LESTRADE. I am particularly interested in butter, Mr. Chair- 

 man. From that time gradually everything changed. We began to 

 bring in a better grade of ladles. We began to bring in a better grade 

 of imitation creamery. We began to bring in a better grade of cream- 

 eries, until to-day we have arrived at almost a stage of perfection as 

 far as creameries are concerned. 



Senator HEITFELD. What do they do now with that butter that you 

 used to gather up in Kansas and Nebraska ? How do they handle it 

 or pack it now ? 



Mr. LESTRADE. I will answer that now immediately ., For some 

 time it was a question, of course, in our minds as to whether oleomar- 

 garine was not going to knock things sideways as far as the butter 

 interests of this country were concerned. We watched it very closel} r ; 

 and of ccarse, naturally, being a practical man in the business I 

 watched it, and I found that our dairy interests were growing very 

 rapidly and that we were increasing in the quality of our goods year 

 by year. I found, and I still find to-day, that, as the gentleman who 

 first spoke here very wisely remarked, the butter industries of Penn- 

 sylvania are growing and widening and more creameries are going up 

 through that great State. That is true. Instead of oleomargarine 

 being a detriment to butter, it has, as an absolute fact, been a great 

 benefit to all butter men. It has not, as a matter of fact, lowered the 

 price of butter. It has not taken away the profit, as, from a theoret- 

 ical standpoint, a great many of these gentlemen will tell you. I 

 know differently, and I can preve it and show it to you. 



Ten or twelve years ago this packing stock that I spoke of we could 

 buy at from 7 to 10 cents a pound during the spring months. New but- 

 ter comes in May, and we get this butter in the months of May, June, 

 Juty, and August; very little, however, in August. The lowest price 

 of butter during the year is in the latter part of May, in June, and 

 sometimes in July. Year by year I found, as a large consumer of 

 this cheap article, that I was obliged to pay more money for it. This 

 was due merely to the natural laws governing a country like ours and 

 the growth of it. But the demand for butter outgrew the industry, 



