OLEOMARGARINE. 481 



Mr. MILLER. Do you mean to say that there is more butter color 

 used in the 107,000,000 pounds of oleomargarine than there is in the 

 1,500,000,000 pounds of butter? 



Mr. KNIGHT. ~No ; I said creamery butter. Only 20 per cent of the 

 product of the United States is creamery butter. 



The next thing to which I wish to call your attention is a statement 

 made by a gentlemen who came down here from New York the other 

 day, and pretended to be a butter man. He is in the butter business, 

 1 believe the export butter business; and it is to his interest to have 

 butter as low as possible, because when it is low he can export it from 

 this country more profitably. When butter is selling at a price which 

 brings anything like a fair return to the producer, he does not get much 

 of an opportunity to export it; and he is therefore interested in low 

 butter prices. He made a statement to you about the tremendously 

 large increase or at least about an increase;. I will not say 41 tremen- 

 dously large" increase in the production of butter, as shown by the 

 receipts of butter in New York City; and he attempted to make this 

 committee believe that the dairy business now is better than it ever 

 has been, by citing the fact that last year the market for butter was, I 

 think, higher than it had been for twelve years. 



I hold in my hand the statistics for receipts of butter in the city of 

 New York during the past twelve years. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. What is that taken from ? 



Mr. KNIGHT. This is from the official report of the mercantile 

 exchange of the city of New York, and can be verified. I do not think 

 it will be contradicted by anybody, however, Senator. 



With the exception of the year 1897, there has never been as much 

 butter received in the city of New York as there was in the year 1890, 

 ten years ago. 



In 1890 the receipts of butter in the city of New York were 2,092,115 

 packages; in 1891, 1,843,702 packages; in 1892, 1,780,826 packages; 

 in 1893, 1,654,198 packages. You will see from these figures that there 

 was a decrease right straight down from 1890, from 2,092,115 packages 

 in that year to 1,654,198 packages in 1893, in the city of New York. 

 The receipts began to increase at that time, owing to a reaction in the 

 market, and in 1894 they were 1,711,466 packages. In 1895 they were 

 1,708,576 packages; in 1896, 1,923,061; in 1897, 2,156,187 packages; 

 1897, then, was the first year when the receipts got up as high as they 

 were in 1890, when they were 2,092,115 packages. In 1898 the receipts 

 fell off from those of 1897. 



(Senator Allen at this point took the chair as Acting Chairman.) 



Mr. KNIGHT. As I say, the receipts of butter in the city of New 

 York reached the figure of 2,156,187 packages in the year 1897. In the 

 year 1898 the production of butter began to fall off again, as shown 

 by those receipts, and reached only 2,079,120 packages. In 1899 it fell 

 off again, and was 2,000,387 packages. In 1900 there was a falling off, 

 and it reached only 1,911,061 packages. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN (Senator Allen). That is the export butter, 

 isjt? 



Mr. KNIGHT. No; these are the receipts in New York, Senator. I 

 am giving these figures in reply to a gentleman who was down here 

 from New York the other day claiming that more butter was received 

 in New York last year than in any other. I have just shown that, 

 with the exception of one year, the receipts in New York have not 

 been in ten years what they were in 1890. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. I recall his evidence. 

 S. Rep. 2043 31 



