326 OLEOMARGARINE. 



nessee have already actually experienced a loss, I think, of $2.50 per 

 barrel on all oil that had not been contracted for. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Well, it is worth cents^a pound, is it 1 ? 



Mr. BOND. Oil? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir. 



Mr. BOND. Six cents a pound? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir that is, butter oil? 



Mr. BOND. Not crude oil; no, sir. 



Mr. KNIGHT. The refined oil, I mean? 



Mr. BOND. I am not familiar with the refined oil. I do not handle 

 refined oil. The price of crude oil in last May varied from 30 to 31 

 cents per gallon of 7J pounds. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Five cents a pound, then? 



Mr. BOND. Not as much as 5 cents a pound. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes; that is true, there being 7 pounds to the gallon. 



Mr. BOND. Yes, sir. 



Mr. KNIGHT. At that rate the 16,000,000 pound- of cotton-seed oil 

 would be worth about $750,000, would they not? 



Mr. BOND. What 16,000,000? 



Mr. KNIGHT. The 16,000,000 pounds probably used in the oleomar- 

 garine produced last year. 



Mr. BOND. In this country? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir. 



Mr. BOND. Well, the oleomargarine people buy the very finest grade 

 of oil, and this number of pounds, as you will understand, is after it 

 has been refined. There is a considerable loss in refining. How much 

 it is I do not know; but the 16,000,000 of pounds represent more crude 

 oil than they would in pounds of refined oil. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes; I see. 



Mr. BOND. So I think the estimate I have made there of 100,000 

 barrels is probably as near as we can get to it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. One hundred thousand barrels? 



Mr. BOND. One hundred thousand barrels in this country; yes, sir. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Is this cotton-seed oil used in the manufac- 

 ture of other food products besides oleomargarine? 



Mr. BOND. Why, sir, I presume a good deal of it goes into creamery 

 butter. It goes into olive oil, which is largely used in lard. Compound 

 lard has a large per cent of it. It is used in linseed oil, undoubtedly. 

 It is used by the soap makers. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. It is used by the lard people, you say. 



Mr. BOND. Why, yes, sir. 



Mr. PERSON. Yes, sir; it is very largely used by them. 



Mr. BOND. I do not know the per cent that is used in compound lard, 

 but I remember that in 1896, I believe it was, Swift & Co^said they 

 used 500,000 barrels of cotton-seed oil in their compound lard. I have 

 no statistics as to the quantity that is used now. 



Mr. PERSON. It is used in butter color, always. It is the medium 

 that carries the color for butter color. 



Mr. KNIGHT. That is a very slight use, however. 



Mr. BOND. But the oleomargarine people are the best customers we 

 have. They buy the finest grade of it and pay the highest prices, and 

 if we are deprived of their trade we feel that we will lose the best cus- 

 tomer we have. 



Mr. KNIGHT. But is there not any way of getting at the value of 

 that refined oil, that butter oil? 



