1 8 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



our best creamery butter in their manufacture, yet, when, as they claim, they do not use to 

 exceed 40 per cent of the same in manufacturing an article which they also claim to be nearly 

 equal to our best brands, all of which goes into consumption in competition with or as a sub- 

 stitute for our genuine goods, their arguments, to use the words of President Landrigan, are 

 simply non-debatable. We also admit that they do at .certain times and on special occasions 

 advance prices on the Elgin Board of Trade ; but as these advantages are only temporary, 

 they tend to demoralize our market, and are invariably followed by a reaction. We claim them 

 to be injurious instead of beneficial. 



" In support of this, please allow us to cite you the effect at Elgin during the last few 

 weeks : Nov. 24 the board price was 27 cents ; Dec. I, 30 cents ; Dec. 8, 32 cents, with a 

 good healthy legitimate demand from the dealers in New York, New Orleans, St. Louis, and 

 other cities who buy our goods regularly for their trade. Dec. 15 there were orders from the 

 above dealers for all offerings at or about 35 cents. At this date one of the most prominent 

 butterine firms of Chicago, through their agents at Elgin, offered and bought every pound 

 they could get at 40 cents. This was fully 4 cents over and above the prices of any other 

 market, and they doubtless could have bought every ounce of butter not positively contracted 

 at 36 cents. The 22d the same parties took it again at 40 cents. In the meantime telegrams 

 and letters were being received by our factory men and local dealers as follows : * Extreme 

 high prices check demand. Ship half regular order.' ' If prices exceed cents ship only 

 tubs. Too high for our market.' ' Owing to the uncertainty of your board prices omit our 

 three. weeks' shipments.' 



"December 29 the butterine men withdrew, and the demand being almost entirely cut off, 

 as above, it was at once evident there must be a decline; but our local dealers, hoping to pre- 

 vent a general break, purchased a few small lots, and established the price at 38 cents, al- 

 though it proved a losing speculation to them. January 4 butterine men not buying and 

 stocks accumulating, the market became lifeless, and fell back to 32^ cents, therefore not 

 only causing us to lose an apparent benefit we had derived, but also a stagnation from which it 

 will take weeks to recover, if at all. Neither is this the worst feature of these purchases. Dealers 

 in large cities, not knowing the cause of these large and unreasonable fluctuations, accuse us 

 of making fictitious prices, and threaten to withdraw their orders entirely from this market, and 

 some have already done so. As the Elgin Board of Trade prices govern largely during the 

 winter months those of all the leading markets, we claim the objects of the butterine men 

 were : First, to advance the price of our finest creamery butter so as to practically place it 

 above most of the consumers ; second, to increase the demand for their product, and enable 

 them to obtain better prices for the same." 



In Colorado there is a law regulating the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, and State 

 Dairy Commissioner Feldwisch is enforcing it vigorously. The penalty for a violation of the 

 law, which is not unlike that in this State, is a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $500, 

 and imprisonment for not more than one year, both at the discretion of the court. He has 

 recently brought about the trial of several dealers, and the question of the constitutionality of 

 the law will probably come before the highest court of the State within a short time. Dr. 

 Headden, the State chemist, has been following the method lately adopted by Dr. Taylor, the 

 microscopist of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and recently exhibited the 

 results of his tests to the State Grange. His researches show that beef fat, hog fat, and but- 

 ter fat crystallize in different forms. When placed under the microscope the crystallization of 

 each fat gave views so uniform and distinct that there was no difficulty in deciding on the kind 

 of fat. The molecules of butter fat clearly showed the characteristic St. Andrew's cross, on 

 what looked as near as anything like a half blown rose in miniature, while those derived from 

 beef fat had a uniform flaky appearance, somewhat resembling crystals of snow, and those 

 derived from lard were more like stars with irregular and sharply defined spangles. The 

 tests made seem to be so certain that it would be hard to overturn them, even in this State, 

 which abounds in scientists of high and low degree. If the cases ever come to trial on the 



