26 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



in 1884 and 17,553,502 pounds in 1885 (as compared with the exports of 1880), the increase in 

 the exports of oleomargarine (comparing the years 1880 and 1885) was 17,882,155 pounds, 

 and in the last two years the exports of the bogus article have almost doubled those of the 

 genuine. The loss to the foreign trade of the United States by the substitution of oleomar- 

 garine for butter is not shown by quantities, but by values. In 1885 the aggregate value of 

 the exports of butter and oleomargarine was $8,095,278, that of butter being $3,643,646 and 

 oleomargarine $4,451,632. If butter had taken the place of oleomargarine in the exportation 

 the aggregate value would have been about $10,000,000. Upon the assumption that the ex- 

 ports of butter were decreased in proportion to the amount of oleomargarine exported, the loss 

 to the butter makers was $6,357,000 and to the foreign trade $1,915,000. 



Mr. C. L. Smith, of Rice & Smith, well-known exporters of butter, called upon Assistant 

 Dairy Commissioner Van Valkenburgh early in January, and asked him for copies of the laws 

 of the State of New York covering the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine and its com- 

 pounds. He explained that he had been requested by a member of the English Parliament to for- 

 ward him these laws and such other information regarding counterfeit butter as he could obtain, 

 his object being to prepare an act prohibiting the importation of the product into Great Britain. 

 In connection with this, the following extract from the London Lancet, an eminent author- 

 ity on questions of public health, may not prove uninteresting : 



"Owing to the large importation of butterine and the sale of this article as butter, it is im- 

 possible*to produce, import, and sell pure butter at a profit. Butterine can be sold at ,3 135 

 (about $17.50) per hundred weight (112 pounds), while imported butter sells at $ gs (about 

 $26.50) per hundred weight. There may not be much difference in the nutritive value of these 

 two fatty articles of food, if digested and assimilated, but there can be no doubt of the dietetic 

 value of the one over the other." 



Commenting upon this, the Chicago Dairyman says: "There can be no doubt that the 

 large importations have depressed the market in England and Ireland to an extent that is seri- 

 ously oppressive to the dairy farmers, who find their receipts for October butter ruinously 

 small. The foreign market and the English dairymen are not the only parties suffering from 

 this product and its fraudulent sale; for on this side a similar decline has been experienced, 

 .and dairy products rule at prices that are very discouraging. There can be no doubt that, put 

 upon the market without disguise, in fair competition with honest goods, butterine would find 

 its level and straight butter prove remunerative. The consumer is also interested in obtaining 

 a pure article of butter, and none can be pure that is not the product of the dairy ; but it is a 

 serious question whether hog fat or beef fat made into butterine is a suitable substance for hu- 

 man food. It is also a question whether the process of manufacture, the treatment with acids, 

 while it renders the stuff pleasant to the sight and agreeable to the taste and smell, does not 

 ;also make it indigestible and unfit for human food." 



WHAT REPUTABLE RETAILERS SAY. 



The retail traffic in oleomargarine, so far as New York city is concerned, is confined mainly 

 to a class of cheap grocers, who are allured by the tempting profit in its sale to risk the pun- 

 ishment for violating the law. Appended are the views of a few well-known retailers : 



" We have never sold oleomargarine in our store," said Mr. Callahan, of Callahan & Kerhp, 

 the Vesey street grocers, " although since the introduction of the article we have been almost 

 daily importuned to do so. When the counterfeit stuff first came into general use, several 

 years ago, an agent representing a certain manufacturer called upon us with samples of his 

 wares. We smelled and tasted them, and found them to be very clever imitations of butter, 

 but at the same time we declined to enter into the traffic, although at that period there was no 

 special law prohibiting it. Our position in the matter was that, as legitimate traders, we could 

 not afford to deal in imitations of any sort, knowing them to be imitations. The agent de- 

 clared that a majority of the leading dealers in our line of business were selling the article and 



