The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-22
SOAP-FAT BUTTER.
Frauds i'm the Butter Trade-The MANI
fon1r1ra of


Frauds i'm the Butter Trade-The Manu-
facture of OIeOmargarine.
A select committee of the New York
butter and cheese exchange met to con-
slider what action should be taken to
stop the extensive frauds perpetrated in
selling spurious compound of animal
fat, suet, milk and oil, known as oleo-
margarine, which has been forced upon
the market. It seems that company
has been in operation in New York city
for several months, whose business has
been to bride merchants of good repute
dealing in butter to accept its manufac-
ture, and sell this stuff under the name
of butter. The manufacturers and their
accomplices have succeeded in selling
tons of this bogus butter to the mill
operatives in Paterson, N. J., and the
miners in Pennsylvania, and in flooding
the markets of the West Indies. Com
plants are received daily by sellers in
New York, accompanied with the threat
that the defrauded purchasers will never
bny another pound of butter from them
under any consideration. The entire
butter trade of this market is in ieopar-
dy. The operations of the oleomargarine
surely extended until at this time man
ufactories OF the counterfeit butter are
i'll operation in Brooklyn, New York,
Jersey City, Hoboken and Boston.
The company gather grease from
| dwelling-houses, fat from he butchers
shops and suet from the slaughter
houses, put the mass under warm press
ure and extract the oil, aad by churniHg
it with milk turn it into what they call
butter. Large quantities were sold last
fall to vessels going to Europe. The
captains of those vessels are looking
for the men who sold it to them for the
purpose of inficting personal chastise-
ment. They say it ruined everything
in which it became an ingredient. It
has been colored with annato and other
chemicals to give it the appearance of
good butter, and has been given flavor
and smell by the use of milk, so that
when the grease is fresh the casual
dealer on the butter market is easily de-
ceived. Not so with the experienced
dealers. They can detect it, but, to the
shame of some of them, they have
dealt largely in it for the sake of large
immediate profits. So bold have the
operators become that a large quantity
was sent to the commissioners of chart
ties and corrections to be used for feed
ing the paupers. It was rejected by the
| commissioners.
It is reported that the fat of dead
horses and other offal has been intro
duced into this so-called "butter." "
! The housewives of New York have be-
come alarmed and will not buy any but
ter that crumbles like rich cheese under
the blade of the knife. A striking pc
culiarity of this "bosch AS it is
branded by law in Germany-is that it
is absolutely useless in cakes or pastry,
making the dough too "short" At
a moderate temperature, considerably
below that at which pure butter melts,
it liquifes, aud soon turns to rancid oil.
! These properties were noticed in the oil
eomargarine shipped last fall to the
tropics. Now the operators are mixing
two-thirds good butter with the fraudu.
lent compound, working it over with
sweet pickle, and putting the mass uL
for the trade in Welsh tubs aud half
frkins. Newark has a factory for this
stuff. So has New Haven. Rhode Is
land has been afflicted with it, and the
authority of the state legislature has
been invoked to prevent its manufac
ture.
The cost of manufacturing oleomarga
rine is stated at fourteen cents pei
pound, and during the winter JUS
passed it has sold as high as thirty
cents. The cupidity of unprincipleC
dealers has been Touched. and l~rsS
companies are forming to increase the
supply and. to continue the fraud
Flaming prospectuses stating how but
ter can be made from soil of tallow' tC
reap large fortunes, and how " a quar-
of milk can be made into a pound o.
butter" have been circulated broad
cast. The butter and cheese exchange
meeting recently adopted resolutions
deuouncing this fraud and pIedging the
members not to deal in it. Among
the remedies proposed is federal Law
requiring every butter package to be
branded with the true name of its con
tents.