The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-09
PURE FAMILY LARD.

Made of 60 Per Cent. Hog Fat, the Remain-
der Being Beef Fat and Cotton-Sced Oil.
WAsHINGToN. Feb. 8.-The inquiry with re-
gard to lard and its compounds. begun two
weeks ago. by tho Senate committee on aRricult-
ure, before which is pending the bill to require
lard compounds to be stamped. was continued
today, and interested parties to the number OF
twenty-five or thirty. comprising manufactur-
ers, attorneys and experts. were present. Mr..
Hill. of Boston. an employe Of Squire & Co.,
who are tho proponents of the pending bill. pro-
duced samples of various compounds in tin pals
which he had purchased in open market and
caused to be chemically examined. He testified
as to the compounds in each specimen, but the
same matters were more fully covered by the
next witness, Prof Sharpless, of Boston, who
had made the examination. sample bearing
the stamp of Armour g. CO.. '.pure refined FAM
lily lard" found to contain about 60 per cent.
of hog lard, with 20 each of cotton-seed oil and
beef tat A sample OF Faigbanks %
Co.'S CHICAGO prime refined family
but had a greater proportion of beef fat and
cotton seed OIL sample bearing the stamp OF
Halstead & Co.. sspure family lard. and anoth-
.'pure lard registered" ETC., contained so far as
the tests had been carried. not particle of hog
lard, but were made entirely of the fat and cot
ton oil Mr.. Hill, who produced these samples,
said ne never heard of the firm of Haistead s.
Co. before but had purchased these samples in
q respectable neiehborhood in New York.
Squire's attorney produced q packing pure
leaf lard" put up by Squire & Co, and pur-
chased in open market by Professor Sharpless,
which the latter testified was entirely hog
product, and contained no trace OF anything
elss He was questioned at length about the
methods of test and the comparative healthful-
of hog lard, beef fats and cotton seed oil
With regard tn cottcnseed oil he said its health
fulness article of diet was still a mooted
questions; it -gas not matter for chemists, but
for medical l. to decide.
Mr.. Hill and Mr.. Sharpless, being cross-exam-
ined, testified that the bulk of Sqnire's product
quality of lard inferior to that produced,
but bore the stamp pure lard" IN contradis-
tinction to s'pure leaf lard" II was entirely
hog product. derived. however, from the '.trim-
mings' of the hog, including portion of the leaf.
Dir. Fairbanks. of Chicago, took the witness
stand and described to the committee the history
of the modern lard prodnct Twenty-Five years
ago lard oil WAS pressed from the hog product,
leaving the stearine, hard. waxy substance.
firm in New York conceived the idea of mixing
stearino with ordinary lard, and formed . com
pound which gave better satisfaction. es-
Psssay II warm Then n,e1ins than
houses, in making lard. got to dumping into the
pans everything, heads. feet, etc, and made
witness said ..hoggish taste.v The refiners
cast about for soms thing to neutralize this, and
found it in cotton seed. Out of a hundred tisrcea
OF packers lard tho retiners got about one tierce
the refined product they added 25 psr cent
of cotton seed oil and Is per cent OF stearine.
which compoun comprises seven-eighths of tho
lard now on the market Once twice. when
the compound run Short the pure lard had been
supplied to customers and the witness
was overwhelmed at once with COM
plants that consumers were dissatisfied. The
trouble with Mr.. Squire, the witness saids arose
from the fact that the witness's firm had secured
a large part Of Mr.. Squire's trade. especially in
New England, and that gentleman had agitated
the passage of the bill because small dealers
would not take out license to sell the COM
pound AZ required by the bill. and as no license
would be required TO sell the pure hog-fat lard
they would resume the purchase of lard manu-
factured by Mr.. Squire. The demand for the
legislation did not come from the people. Tho
constantly increasing sales of lard made by the
witnesss frm proved that tho public wanted
their lard When asked why he did not label it
as a compound lard. he said that The American
people were not educated mp TO the use OF oils
yet He objected to being compelled TO change
the brand. refined lard, because that label was
part of his stock in trade.
The hearing will be continued tomorrow.