OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. I/ 



Agricultural Board recently because the latter declined to join in the movement to abolish the 

 manufacture and sale of bogus butter, and because at a recent fat-stock show the butterine 

 men were permitted to exhibit their product. The Agricultural Board took the ground that 

 the manufacture of butterine is a legal business, and declared that they could not discrimi- 

 nate between two occupations, both being legitimate. It was in vain that the dairymen pro- 

 tested that the sales of the bogus butter were made in fraud and that their interests were 

 being ruined by dishonest means and not by honest competition ; the board still persisted 

 in holding to its views. It seems that the agitation of the bogus butter question has 

 had a good effect upon this body, for at a recent meeting they adopted the following reso- 

 lutions . 



*' Whereas, The State Board of Agriculture is in sympathy with every effort to secure 

 pure and wholesome food for the human family : and, 



" Whereas, There seems to be at present no adequate protection against unwholesome and 

 deleterious adulterations of dairy products afforded by law ; therefore, be it 



" Resolved, That we respectfully request Congress to enact a law placing all dairy pro- 

 ducts and all imitations of or substitutes for the same under the control of a competent gov- 

 ernment inspector, to the end that such articles shall be branded and sold under their proper 

 names and on their own merits. 



"Resolved, That we respectfully direct the attention of Congress to the unwholesome 

 adulteration of other food products, and pray for proper legislation for the adequate protec- 

 tion of the people from the 



THE DECLINE IN THE PRICE OF BUTTER. 



The following from The New York Star of January 28, 1886, is a lucid presentation of 

 the methods pursued by oleomargarine manufacturers in their desperate efforts to force their 

 vile compounds into universal use : 



Of the many arguments used by the advqcates of oleomargarine, butterine. and other fraudu- 

 lent butter, one of the most potent has been that the introduction of the bogus in competition 

 with the genuine article has advanced the market price of the latter within the past five years. 

 While it is true that the finest 'grades of creamery butter, such as the Elgin and the Darlington, 

 sell at higher figures to-day than at any time within the period named, the product of the 

 ordinary dairy farmer has not maintained its standing in the market. It is true, too, that there 

 have been many improvements in the making of buttei in the past few years that have 

 enhanced the value of the higher grades, but to claim that the manufacture and sale of oleomar- 

 garine has increased the price of butter is absurd, since every pound of the bogus article sold 

 and consumed must take the place of a pound of the genuine. Hence the dairyman has been 

 defrauded out of his legitimate market, while the consumer has saved little or nothing by the 

 purchase of the counterfeit, for bogus butters are sold at about the same prices as natural dairy 

 butter, and he has eaten a substance that is neither pure nor wholesome. 



The Elgin creameries, which are located near Chicago, practically fix the prices for butter 

 throughout the country. The ruling power in the butter market is the Elgin Board of Trade. 

 The prices it quotes prevail wherever butter is sold, and hence its influence is not to be under- 

 estimated. The following letter, which appeared in a recent issue of the Elgin Courier, is 

 from Mr. L. M. Potter, a well-known creamery man, correctly sets forth the situation and 

 shows that, while the Elgin creameries fix the price for butter, the butterine men, backed by 

 tremendous capital, practically control them. Mr. Potter says : 



" During the late discussion before the State Board of Agriculture at Springfield on the 

 butterine question, one of the advocates of the interest made the assertion that the manufac- 

 ture of oleomargarine and butterine enhanced the value of Elgin creamery butter, and was 

 therefore an advantage to the dairyman. While, as is well known, they do use a portion of 



