MARGARINE AND BUTTER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1017, 5 January 1911, Page 8

MARGARINE AND BUTTER.

. HARASSING IMITATIONS. Margarine manufacturers seem . to be getting, a. w:Jrm time on all sides, but everywhere' thev npperir to be making a good fight in their own-.interests. America ■ decided to deal somewhat' severely with' makers of ; anything which .was an imitation .of butter,- but pressure was i brought'on Congress in an endeavour to ! obtain -, an. alteration of the law. The i efforts of'the trade awakened the dairy- ■ ihg representatives,, and 'when the last ;. mail left America petitions were being prepared for presentation to Congress. "Hoard's' Dairyman," which protests? \ rigorously against .the unrestricted sale of : oleomargarinein , the semblance of j butter," suggested a, form of petition. In i the-.form drawn. up 'the following passages occur:—"Butter is composed of a ; ; fat ;disti}led..iii.-.Nature's laboratory, the i only fat provided by Nature for human K consumption and nurture in its original i condition.' : Oleomargarine,'on tlio con- • ' trary, is'a, compound manufactured from | the intestinal ' fa's of cattle and swine ; ■ with the addition in varying quantities of vegetable.,oils and more or less milk fat,' the latter to give it a butter odour. ■ "Butter may be,of varying shades of yellow, 'depending upon the season of tho ; year, the feed eaten by the cows, and ; the breed' to which they belong, and (o ; . overcome this diversity, harmless colour-

ing matter is fnequently used, nnd in consequenca yellow has' become 'the distinctive and: universally -.recognised trado mark of tho best butter. ' ; . "Oleomargarine,. 011 .tho contrary, 'is white unless artificially coloured or-made from inferior fats,-, but when'coloured to resemble butter, ns it may be, it is difficult to distinguish one irom the other without .resort to iutiicato scientific.tests. Eeuce, coloured oleomargarino can be and frequently is sold to tho consumer'a§ butter and. at the'.sa'm'e or nearly the samp,price, especially to .the average working: man-and his family, a practice'not only conmiercially^dishpnourdole,'. but .un.qufwifieklly dishonesti'— "if it were forbidden to mnuufacturo oleomargarine in. the semblance of- butter, if the colour of . the' article could- be restricted so-as to denote, its source and character, then tho?o who want butter may.be sure they .are not served with a counterfeit substitute; and those who for. any-reason may. prefer oleomargarine canobtain it at its . legitimate-price'as fixed by the inexorable law of' supply and demand," :: v •