The Republican. [volume] (Maryville, Tenn.) 187?-187?, 1874-05-30
SOAP-FAT BUTTER.
Frauds i'm the Butter Trade-The Manu-.
faclure of OIeOmargarine,

Frauds In the Butter Trade-The Manu-
faciure of OleOmargarine.
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 a spurious compound of animal
fat, suet, milk and oil, known as oleo-
margarine, which has been forced upon
the market. 1t seems that a company
has been in operation in New York city
for several months, whose business has
been to blibe 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 jeopar.
dy The operations of the oleomargarine
manufacturers have been quietly but
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 the butchers
shops and suet from the slaughter.
houses, put the mass under warm press
ure and extract the oil, aad by churnine
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 inhicting personal chastise.
ment. They say it ruined everything
in which it became an ingredient. II
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. 1t was rejected by the
commissioners.
1t is reported that the fat of deat
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 il
branded by law in Germany-is that i
is absolutely useless in cakes or pastry
making the dough too "short." A
moderate temperature, considcrabl,
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 tn
tropics. Now the operators are mixing
two-thirds good butter with the fraudu
lent compound, working it over wit
sweet pickle, and putting the mass u
for the trade in Welsh tubs aud hall
firkius. Newark has factory for thi
stuff. So has New Haven. Rhode Is
land has been afflicted with it, and tn
authority of the state legislature ha
been invoked to prevent its manufac
ture.
The cost of manufacturing oleomarga
rine is stated at fourteen cents pc
pound, and during the winter jus
passed it has sold as high as thirt
cents. The cupidity of unprinciple,
dealers has been touched, and larg
companies are forming to increase tn
supply and to continue the fraud
Flaming prospectuses stating how but
ter can be made from coil of tallow' t.
reap large fortunes, and how ga quar-
of milk can be made into pound O
butter" have been circulated broad
cast. The butter and cheese exchange
meeting recently adopted resolution
denouncing this fraud and pledging th,
members not to deal in it. Anon,
the remedies proposed is a federal Law
requiring every butter package to b,
branded with the true name Of it's con
tents.