OLEOMARGARINE. 167 



and I will merely state that for the last two years the price has gradu- 

 ally gone up from 8 or 10 cents a pound until a year ago I put that same 

 butter away at 13 to 14 cents a pound. This spring I put it away at 

 from 14 to 16 cents a pound. We are obliged to put large quantities of 

 it away for our fall and winter use, for it does not come in quantities 

 at that time of the year, so we are obliged to buy it in the flood in the 

 spring. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Will you permit a question ? 



Mr. LESTRADE. Yes, sir. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. How does the quality of that article compare now 

 with what it was ten or twelve years ago ? 



Mr. LESTRADE. It is all made of dairy butter. Understand, it is not 

 ladle butter. It is not manufactured by machinery or anything like 

 that. It is made by the wives and daughters of the farmers. Conse- 

 quently it is a hard, solid A 1 piece of cheap butter, made with all the bac- 

 teria and all the parasites and everything else all shoved in and brought 

 to us, and we manipulate it and wash it and put it on the market. 



Mr. FLANDERS. How long have they been making this ladle butter 

 gathering this Western butter and making it ? 



Mr. LESTRADE. Since I have been in the business. 



Mr. FLANDERS. When they first began there was a great quantity of 

 it, was there not? It was a drug on the market? 



Mr. LESTRADE. A what? 



Mr. FLANDERS. A drug on the market. 



Mr. LESTRADE. Not necessarily, unless it was utterly unfit for use. 



Mr. FLANDERS. This butter that is brought in by the Western farm- 

 ers and gathered up by the stores is sent to central stations just as fast 

 as it is produced, is it not? 



Mr. LESTRADE. Well, the rolls are. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Would not that account for the increase in price? 

 When you first began to gather up this butter there was no market 

 for it, was there? It was an experiment, was it not? 



Mr. LESTRADE. No; it was no experiment. It was an everyday 

 business. 



Mr. FLANDERS. The reason I asked this question was that your tes- 

 timony, so far as it goes, is contrary to all I have ever heard on the 

 subject, and I have given it a great deal of study. I know of your 

 firm. Are you not an exporter? 



Mr. LESTRADE. Yes. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Do you agree with Bardon Brothers on this propo- 

 sition ? 



Mr. LESTRADE. I believe I do. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Do you sell to the home trade? 



Mr. LESTRADE. No. 



Mr. FLANDERS. It is simply a question of money in the foreign 

 market, is it not? 



Mr. LESTRADE. Entirely as an exporter I am now talking. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Do you observe the laws of your State on this 

 subject? 



Mr. LESTRADE. How do you mean do I observe them? 



Mr. FLANDERS. Do you obey them ? 



The CHAIRMAN. That is hardly a fair question. 



Mr. LESTRADE. I do not know what you mean. 



Mr. FLANDERS. The point I would like to make, if the committee 



