The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-05-09
FARM AND GARDEN.


A select committee Of the Butter and Cheese
Exchange OF this city, met on Monday the
Goth, to consider what action should be taken
TO stop the extensive frauds perpetrated IN
selling n spurious compound OF amman lat,
suet milk and oil, known as eleomargarine,
which has been forced upon the market IL
seems that company has been IN opcfalion
here for several months, whose Dusincss mas
been to bride merchants of good reputc deai,
ing IN butter to accept its manuiaclure' anu
sell this stuff under the name OF butter Inc
manufacturers and their accomp!ices have
succeed in selling tons Of this bogus butter
to the mill operatives III Paterson, N, Jr ana
the miners in PENNSYLVANIA, and in flooding
the markets of the West Indies complaints
are received daily Ivy sellers in New York,
nccomponied with the threat that the detraud
ed purchasers will never buy another pound
of butter from them under any consideration
The entire butter trade Of this market is in
jeopardy The operations of the oleomar
carinc manufacturers have been quietly but
Surely extended, until at this time manufac
tories of the counterfeit butter are in operation
in Brooklyn, New York, Jersey City, Hobo
ken and Boston.
The company gather grease from dwelling
houses, fat from the butchers shops, and suet
from the slaughter houses, put the mass under
warm pressure and extract the oil, ana by
churning it with milk, turu it into what they
call butter. Large quantities were sold last
fall to vessels going to Europe. The cap
tains Of those vessels are looking for the men
who sold it to them, for the purpose OF IN
tiicting personal chastisemcni. They say that
it ruined everything in which it became an
ingredient. 1t has been coiorcd 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 deceived. Not so
with the experienced dealers. They can de-
tect it, but to the shame OF some oil Them they
have dealt largely in it for the sake OF large
immediate profits. SO bod have the opera
tors become that large quantity was sent to
the Commissioners of Charities and Correc-
tons to be used for feeding the paupers. 1t
was rejected by the Commissioners,
1t is reported that the fat OF dead horses anu
other offal has been introduced into this So
called "butter." The housewives of New
York have become alarmed, and will not buy
any butter that crumblcs like rich cheese un.
der the blade of knife. A striking pecu-
Iiarity of this "bosch"-as il is branded by
law in Germany-is that it is absolutely use
less in cakes or pastry, making the dough
too "short" At moderate temperature,
considerably below that at which pure butter
melts, it liquities, and soon turns to rancid
oil. These properties were noticed in the
oleomargarine shipped last fall to the trop-
leg. Now the operators are mixing twothlrds
good butter with the fraudulent compound,
working it over with sweet pickles and put
ting the mass up for the trade in Welsh tubs
and half frkins. Newark has factory for
the stuff SO has New Haven. Rhode Is
land has been afflicted with it, and the author:
ity of the State Legislature has been invoked
to prevent its manufacture.
The cost of manufacturing oleomargarine IS
stated at Il cents per pound, and during the
winter Just passed it sold as high as 30 cents.
The cupidity of lnprincipled dealers has
been touched, and large companies are form
ing to increase the supply and to continue
the fraud Flaming prospcctuses stating
how butter can be made from "oil OF tallow,
to reap large fortunes, and how quart OF
milk can be made into pound OF butter
have been circulated broadcast The Butter
and Cheese Exchange meeting yesterday
adopted resolutions denouncing this fraud
and pledging the members not to deal in it,
Another meeting will be held to-day. Among
the remedies proposed is Fedora law re,
curing every butter package to be branded
with the true name Of its contents.--J0srRdt
Of Cc39faSrce.