OLEOMARGAEINE. 333 



milk, of which one factory alone was short 1,000,000 cases of 4 dozen 

 cans each which they had sold but were unable to deliver because of 

 the milk shortage. The denuding of the forest lands has in many 

 instances lowered the beds of the rivers, and an open winter such as 

 we are now experiencing, with a lack of snow, often results in poor 

 crops and poor pastures. Such conditions mean great scarcity of milk, 

 with invariably high prices for butter. Will it not does it not follow 

 logically that people of limited or moderate means will be compelled to 

 use some substitute because of their inability or unwillingness to pay 

 a high price for the cow product? 



This line of thought prompts an answer to the question put by one 

 of the committee at a previous session, as to whether "the continued 

 production of butteriue will tend to decrease the price of milch cows?" 

 An answer may be found in the Orange Judd Farmer, which is author- 

 ity for the statement that in 1891 there were in the United States 268 

 cows to every 1,000 inhabitants, and that the average value of these 

 cows was $21.62 each. The figures given for 1900 are 259 cows, at an 

 average valuation of $31.12 each, an advance of 44 per cent in cost 

 and a decrease of about 3J per cent in ratio of increase. 



If this is so, as I think our friends on the cow side of the fence will 

 be forced to admit, the predictions for the future must be taken as 

 more than conservative. Further authority is found in the Sussex 

 Independent, of Deckertown, N. J., published in a county which sup- 

 plies one-fifth of the total milk product of that State, and in its issue 

 of February 2 explains the scarcity of cows as follows: 



The time was, and not far distant either, that the butter-making farmers of these 

 grass-growing midland counties made it a point to raise the greater portion of their 

 calves and sell off those they did not want in September and October for prices rang- 

 ing from $3 to $5 a head. Of late years they feed the calf well until it is six or 

 eight weeks old and get about double for it what they did when they kept it from 

 four to six months under the old style. The new method has had a great deal to do 

 with making the supply of cows less, and there is not half the number of cows 

 from up this way marketed in Orange County that there was fifteen years ago. 



In further confirmation of the proposition that the supply of cows or 

 milk will not keep pace with the increase in population, it will not be 

 gainsaid that the increased demand for milk in the cities has already 

 caused a tremendous decrease in the production of butter in all the 

 States known as the eastern and middle divisions, and has caused the 

 milk to flow from the farms to the consumers in the cities and towns of 

 those States. Indeed, so much is this the case that statistics of the 

 railroads known as milk roads will show that the average haul of milk 

 has doubled, and in some instances trebled, in the past ten or fifteen 

 years, showing beyond cavil how widely the territory has extended 

 which contributes to the milk supply of the centers of population. 

 Are there any who will hazard a prediction that in twenty-five years 

 butter will not be a luxury and butterine more of a necessity than it is 

 even now? If, as I believe, the future has this in store for us, why not 

 prepare for it, and make ready for the inevitable condition which will 

 confront those who will come after us, but who, if this tax is permitted 

 to become a law, will certainly not build monuments to your states- 

 manship or pronounce eulogies on your foresight. If these suggestions 

 do not meet your approval, let me in all seriousness ask your approval 

 of a plan which I am sure will quickly have the indorsement of every 

 farmer in the land and will certainly relieve you gentlemen of all pres- 

 sure from your constituents to vote for the present bill. 



Remove all tax on oleomargarine and instead leave to the States 

 such regulations as will permit the farmer to work up his milk with the 



