No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 441 



observation covering the retail markets of the whole State, 

 including those selling from both stores and wagons, con- 

 vince us that in many instances the consumer does not know 

 what he is buying, and the article is sold dishonestly. When 

 anv inferior article is thus sold dishonestly as something- 

 better than it is, it becomes a damage to legitimate business. 



We believe that renovated butter, as it is ordinarily sold, 

 is a menace to the business in natural butter. Notice that 

 we use the word ' ' natural " butter, in distinction from ' ' reno- 

 vated " butter. Renovated butter is unquestionably the real 

 product of the cow's udder, without adulteration, generally 

 speaking (a little glucose is sometimes added, to give it body 

 or grain) ; but the process of renovation so changes the sub- 

 stance that, though it still remains real butter, it is no longer 

 natural butter. It boils like oleomargarine, rather than nat- 

 ural butter ; it appears under the polariscope more like oleo- 

 margarine than natural butter ; in some kinds of cooking it 

 will not take the place of natural butter. Consequently, we 

 claim that renovated butter is not natural butter. Though 

 the wholesale trade, as stated above, almost unanimously 

 oppose the use of a distinctive brand or label which shall 

 apprise the consumer of its real character, there are those in 

 the butter business who do not hesitate to say that as usually 

 retailed it is as great a menace as unregulated oleomargarine 

 would be. One dealer says that the trade is committing slow 

 suicide in the course things are taking. 



Here are some facts which we can substantiate. When the 

 best creamery butter was quoted in assorted size tubs, in a 

 strictly wholesale way, at 22 to 221/2 cents per pound, a 

 large Boston retailer advertised in a showy manner in the 

 Sunday papers that he ' ' owned creameries in the finest dairy 

 sections of the country," and could therefore sell direct to 

 the consumer an article of ' ' superb quality, " at a very low 

 price. This dealer, having made this boast, thereupon offered 

 "Locust Valley Elgin Creamery Butter" at 22 cents per 

 pound in five-pound boxes, and at 21 cents per pound in 

 tubs. A Bureau inspector purchased one of the five-pound 

 boxes at 22 cents per pound, — less than the extreme whole- 

 sale price of butter in tubs in round lots, — and the stuff 



