OLEOMABGAKINE. 



327 



Mr. BOND. Why, you could probably get that from the oleomargarine 

 people, sir. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Where is this oil refined? 



Mr. BOND. There are several refineries at Louisville, and there are 

 refineries at Cincinnati, New York, New Orleans, Kansas City, Savan- 

 nah, Atlanta, and Memphis. 



Mr. KNIGHT. To get back to the subject, the oil that is used by the 

 oleomargarine people could not at the outside amount to more than a 

 million dollars in value, could it? 



Mr. BOND. A million dollars? I have not made the calculation that 

 way. If, as I figure it, they use 100,000 barrels of oil, that would be, 

 at, say, 25 cents a gallon, about a million and a quarter dollars. But 

 the oil which is used by the oleomargarine manufacturers sets the price 

 for all of our oil. We estimate, in round numbers, that there are about 

 forty gallons of oil in a ton of seed. In practice we do not get out that 

 much. So you will see that a difference of a cent a gallon on the oil 

 will make a difference of about 40 cents on a ton of seed. The price of 

 seed has been reduced about $2.50 a ton. 



Mr. KNIGHT. You mean that the value or price of butter oil, and not 

 particularly what these people buy, sets the value of your product, do 

 you not? 



Mr. BOND. Well, the quantity is small. I estimate that the quantity 

 is about 7 per cent of our total production. There are about 2,000,000 

 tons of seed crushed in the South, and I figure that about 150,000 tons 

 go into oleomargarine, or about 7J per cent. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Do you know the amount of exports of cotton-seed oil ? 



Mr. BOND. No, sir; of cotton-seed oil entirely, you mean? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir. 



Mr. BOND. No, sir; I do not. 



I will say that when I received notice from these mills to appear here 

 to represent them, I went around in the town in which Hived to make 

 some inquiries about the sale of oleomargarine. I was not familiar 

 with it. I went to my grocer and he told me that his exclusive sale at 

 this season of the year was in 1-pound bars, each of which was wrapped 

 up and branded in large letters " Oleomargarine." He had two grades, 

 apparently alike, one of which he sold at 15 cents and the other at 20 

 cents; and he sold his best butter at 35 cents. He said: "Here is a 

 grade of butter that I sell to you, but I have a very great difficulty in 

 getting enough of it to supply my trade." He said : " I sell about as 

 much oleomargarine as I do butter. I sell about 500 pounds of each 

 every week; and no man has ever bought from me oleomargarine think- 

 ing he was getting butter. There is no occasion for any deception, 

 because they call for it and buy it for what it is." 



1 want to say further that I was in Sheffield, Ala., two or three weeks 

 ago. We run an oil mill there. As I went into the office of the hotel, 

 there was a notice written in large handwriting and stuck up con- 

 spicuously on the wall in the hotel office, a We use butteiine in this 

 hotel." You do not find that everywhere. That man was probably a 

 little more honest than some others. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Probably he was conforming to the State- 

 law. 



Mr. BOND. No, sir; not at all. 



Mr. KNIGHT. I think that is in accordance with the State law of 

 Alabama. They have a law in Alabama forbidding the coloring of 

 oleomargarine, and something regarding signs. 



