172 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



A. If oleomargarine had suddenly been stopped and no more blitter 

 in the market than there is today, butter would probably be worth fifty 

 cents a pound. If oleomargarine had never been made, butter would 

 T^e worth 25 cents and not a cent more. For years oleomargarine has 

 made the production of butter unprofitable to the dairyman, and they 

 liave quit it to such a large extent that there is not enough butter 

 being produced at the present time for those who demand it, and that 

 is the reason it would be high today if oleomargarine was suddenly 

 stopped. But it will be only a question of a short tune before there will 

 be plenty of creamery butter for every man who wants it and at a 

 reasonable price. 



Q. I am a farmer and a dairyman and I own lands that the produc- 

 tions are all milk, but I say today that I don't see how you are going to 

 reach this question, for the reason that the butterine and butter can't 

 be told apart by some of the best men. There are not fifty who can tell 

 the difference between butter and butterine here. You can go in the 

 store and buy the best kind of butter and buy the best oleomargarine 

 for fifteen cents, and there ain't half the men here can tell the difference. 

 How are you going to beat them out of it? I am telling the truth, but 

 this is the case. They come out here and go to the condensing factory 

 and then come back to the store and buy oleomargarine and take it home 

 and eat it. That is the condition and in my opinion today if oleomar- 

 garine was out of existence that our butter would fetch 75 cents a pound, 

 because I have sold it in years oast. I don't see how you are going to 

 meet it if you can't tell the difference, and you ain't going to pay 75 

 cents or even 35 cents if you can get oleomargarine for fifteen cents. Can 

 you give some test that people can test it right on the counter there 

 and tell one from the other. Then you can meet it? 



A. We have a test, sir. 



Q. 1 can go in town here and I can pick out butterine better than 

 one-half of the dairymen in this town. I don't see how they are go- 

 ing to meet it if they can't tell the difference? 



