The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-01-27
Another Form OF Bogus Butter.

Major M. E. Alvord, chief of the
dairy division, United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, says: Where ex-
listing laws are properly enforced, cleo
and butterine are 80 well identified and
their sale 30 well guarded, that it is diff
ficult to impose upon buyers by substi-
tuting these articles for genuine butter.
But the whole line of goods known to
the trade as " ladles," are everywhere
sold without restriction, mixed in with
pure farm dairy and creamery butter.
Under the deceptive title of imitation
creamery" much of this stuff is worked
onto retailers without distinguishing
marks, and sold to the consumer as
fresh creamery butter. Ladled butter
is not as deserving of place among
straight dairy products as good butter
inc. The component parts of the
former do not begin to be as clearly as
that of the latter. II may usually be
justly claimed to contain only butter
fat, but this must be described as puri-
fed, rather than pure. The prOmiscu-
GUS lots of poor farm butter, which
reach country store keepers in trade
and are unfit for local sales, are indis-
criminately dumped into some conve-
nient receptacle, then absolutely ne
elected, being often exposed TO con-
taminatiOn in various ways, and finally,
when the package is filled, or its con-
tents becomes 80 offensive that it can
not be longer endured, it is sent as
slow, cheap freight to the establishment
of the "ladler." These packages of
grease,-which by no stretch of
courtesy can be fairly called butter,-
often arrive at the factory, especially in
warm weather, in an indescribably cor
rupt and disgusting condition.
The material is then managed in va.
rious ways, as the processes differ, but
usually it is melted up" rendered !"
like low grade lard.-clarified, treated
with chemicals to remove the vile
odors and tastes, and then cooled, re-
crystalized as we'll as is possible, and
churned with little new milk or but
termilk, to restore something of the
long-lost butter flavor. The resulting
product is the "ladled butter" of COM
merce, and if it happens to turn out a
little better or more deceptive than the
| average, it takes place in the market
under the name of imitation cream
| cry" Cleansed or renovated butter
would be reasonably honest name for
this article, it should be marked by
80 ne such distinctive title and 80 as to
identify it all the way to the consumer.
This class of butter is in all our mar
kets in immense quantity. / lately
gathered information indicating that
ten million pounds of it were made last
year in three western states but
sparsely settled, and this was only one
of several producing areas. A some
what better class OF goods is obtained
by gathering butter in mass as churned.
and preferably unsalted, from the farms
where made, or the nearest country
stores, and then working it over at the
factory, without melting. But all
comes to market without distinction as
to origin. 1t stands in the quotations
of the day, the equal of eastern diaries
and of western creamerles, excepting
what are known as "extra" in both
those classes and is a much more seri-
GUS competitor Of fresh, sound, farm
dairy butter and the lower grades of
creamery butter, than any form of ac-
knowledged butter substitutes. This is
an incomplete but fair presentation of
the evil.
1