No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 307 



One of the arguments advanced for the passage of the law 

 creating the dairy bureau was that such a body coukl arrive 

 at authoritative and official information as to the extent and 

 nature of the oleomargarine business ; for many apparently 

 contradictory statements were made in the arguments before 

 legislative committees and in the Legislature itself. On the 

 one side were many scientific gentlemen, who testified as to 

 the wholesomeness of oleomargarine and its desirability as 

 a food product ; on the other hand were those interested in 

 the prosperity of agriculture, asking for relief from what 

 they considered an unjust competition with honest butter. 



The facts as they appear to the bureau after its brief expe- 

 rience are that there is some truth in both claims. To a 

 certain extent the okl story of the shield is repeated. 



We are not prepared to dispute the statements of honest 

 scientists in relation to the value of oleomargarine ; we are 

 ready to admit tliat there is a theoretical oleo, which, if put 

 upon the market honestly, on its merits as an independent 

 article, might have proved an important addition to the 

 world's food products. But the ordinary commercial oleo- 

 margarine with which we have to deal seems in many cases 

 to exert a benumbins; influence on the moral sensilnlities of 

 those who handle it. There seems very little disposition to 

 sell it " in a separate and distinct form, and in such a man- 

 ner as will advise the consumer of its real character." Every 

 attempt to secure, by legislation, such a manner of selling 

 oleomargarine has been vigorously opposed. From the 

 start it has been made to look like butter, has been sold in 

 butter stores, and given all the nomenclature of the dairy. 

 " Butter-ine " is even now a popular name for it, and, until 

 the law prevented, " dairy butterine " and " creamery but- 

 terine ' were common terms. Even now some manufactur- 

 ing companies are incorporated as dairy companies, and we 

 have seen in some stores such a si^n as " Butterine from the 

 Wooddale Dairy Company sold here." It is put up in but- 

 ter tubs or in prints, it is colored Avith the article of com- 

 merce known as " butter color," and sold in butter stores, 

 with the tubs of oleo and the butter tul)s side by side. In 

 Massachusetts it is a food product of great merit and value 

 (sic) , but in Pennsylvania it is ' ' not sold as an article of 



