SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



fulcrum of national interest, the scales slant sharply 

 toward margarine. The basic fact that cannot be argued 

 away or laughed off is that edible oils can be produced 

 at half the cost of butterfat. 



Before the milkmen enter the margarine battle they 

 should consider whether they have not been more 

 worried over the prospect of a loss of part of their 

 butter market than the realities warrant. Butterfat is 

 the least profitable item on the dairy industry's sales 

 ledger, and the country is wanting more and more milk 

 (whole, condensed, and powdered) and more cheese 

 and ice cream. Americans might well consume so the 

 dieticians urge at least a fifth more of these good foods. 

 That fifth would more than offset butter losses to mar- 

 garine. The dairyman even has one cogent reason to 

 encourage the edible oils. Both cottonseed and soybean 

 yield a joint product that he needs, high-grade protein 

 feed. This, the most important, costly material that he 

 must buy month after month, would then become 

 cheaper. 



For this country to be dependent upon imported oils 

 is as improvident and dangerous as to rely upon foreign 

 sources for any other essential that we can produce at 

 home. Whether the vegetable oils have been our great- 

 est agricultural scandal or our finest farm opportunity, 

 the position of independence achieved during the war 

 ought not to be permitted to slip away from us. Our 

 sorry experience with cotton warns that our ability to 



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