188 OLEOMARGARINE. 



the two previously quoted, from which opinions we can only derive 

 that butter and butterine are identical, save in the difference of the 

 percentage of butyric acid and the difference in the process of manu- 

 facture. The rancidity which makes butter so objectionable to taste 

 and smell comes from the liberation of butyric acid, and thereby is 

 explained the reason why butterine never gets rancid, because it con- 

 tains only a small percentage of this butyrin, wholly insufficient to 

 cause any objectionable odor. Having thoroughly explained that both 

 butter and butterine are artificially made food products, and that the 

 ingredients of both compounds are extracts from the animal provided 

 by nature, and that they are nearly identical in every particular, we 

 come to the all-important subject of "coloring." 



We need not go back fifteen or twenty-five years to remember that 

 dairy butter was mostly white, or of a very light yellow, and very 

 rarely, if ever, seen in that golden-yellow color so prominent and 

 characteristic of butter to-day. Let us take up the subject of the color 

 of dairy butter to-day with all the advanced ideas of dairying, of 

 making, and with all the advanced ideas of keeping, caring, and feed- 

 ing the cow and what is the result? We find that the color of dairy 

 butter is as varied to-day, and perhaps more so, on account of the inter- 

 breeding of cattle, uncommon and perhaps not known twenty-five years 

 ago. We also find that there is a difference in color of butter from 

 nearly each different herd of dairy cattle, conditioned upon the care 

 and the feeding of the cattle, and these different colors are again mul- 

 tiplied by the different seasons' changes affecting the color of butter 

 which is churned free from artificial coloration. This proves unde- 

 niably and indisputably that "nature" has made no changes in the 

 milk-giving properties of her cow, and therefore we must in all reason 

 firmly believe that the universal golden color of butter is due solely 

 and alone to the introduction of an artificial ingredient called "color- 

 ing." I beg to call your attention to the fact that not all butter is col- 

 ored artificially, because there are a number of conditions from artificial 

 feeding and caring for the cattle and certain seasons of the year during 

 which different shades of yellow butter can be produced. 



In my opinion good fresh butter is better suited as an article of food 

 when it is colored with a harmless coloring matter, yet one is very apt 

 to be deceived in the purchase of colored butter, because the introduc- 

 tion of coloring matter, which is allowed to be introduced and is most 

 frequently used in inferior makes of butter, is calculated to deceive 

 even the most wary. In this lies the greatest danger, not only in the 

 deception of the quality, but also in the price of butter, because I do 

 not believe that any person using only the sense of sight can distinguish 

 rancid from fresh butter which is colored alike. I will not attempt to 

 state that the introduction of coloring in butter should be prohibited. 

 On the contrary, in my humble opinion the coloring of butter should 

 be allowed, because even the school child who has passed the primary 

 grade will define the color of butter as "yellow," and every adult 

 expects at this advanced age to have the product served to him "yel- 

 low." Now, why should not all of the foregoing be applicable to this 

 new food product legislatively called "oleomargarine," and why should 

 not every argument in favor of colored butter be applied to butterine? 

 Butterine is as decidedly a farm product as butter, because there is 

 ^absolutely no ingredient in its composition that does not come from 



