keepers to keep everything lying around until they got a barrel full
before sending it off. But to-day I am telling the absolute truth,
without prejudice in the matter in the system of manufacturing proc-
ess butter it is not permitted to get out of condition, with rare excep-
tions. There is no doubt, as has been stated to the committee by a
gentleman from Philadelphia, that there is some awful stuff that goes
into process butter. They say that fat is not easily contaminated, and
when it is once contaminated there never has been an acid discovered
that will successfully bring it back. You can no more bring back
dairy butter to its original sweet condition than you can bring back
contaminated fat of any kind. They have tried it. They have made
experiments with alkalis, etc., but it only saponifies the fat, makes it
soapy and fluffy, and takes the life out, so that it is soft like lard.

The butter is collected and taken to the central factories; there
it is melted in a temperature from 102 to 120 in large tanks by the
use of hot water and steam. Those vats are placed on a slant; they
are crisscrossed with pipes with hot water running through them, and
the fat inelts and is drawn off into a vat. That fat is left there in the
vat so that the casein and water may be precipitated, leaving a clear
amber oil on top, and taking the casein and water and salt out under-
neath. That water and salt and casein are drawn oft' from the bot-
tom, leaving the clear oil on top. There are various methods for get-
ting out what may remain in the shape of casein that does not pre-
cipitate immediately. The process used to be to leave that fat at a



OLEOMARGARINE. 535

temperature of about 102 aiid 108 for two or three days, and then
whatever residue would not precipitate was drawn from the top
instead of the bottom to get the fat from the top. They have various
methods now for precipitating the casein, but those are business secrets.
They are mechanical, not involving the use of acids at all. It is those
matters that the manufacturers of process butter keep secret the
methods of finally precipitating what remains of the casein in the
body of the oil. I have been through a great many factories in the
United States, and seen their methods, one after the other, and was
offered $5,000 for a description of the method of clarifying the oil
finally. Of course, it was given to me in confidence, and I would as
soon steal $5,000 from a man as I would give away his secret. But I
give you my word of honor that there is no acid used in that clarifica-
tion. It is simply a mechanical method which has been discovered,
the construction of which probably cost $5,000 to $6,000. It is merely
a centrifugal arrangement, but that centrifugal arraugment has been
studied for years on the part of these people. But no acid is used for
that purpose, so far as I know. It was always left for gravity to per-
form that function.

After that oil is clarified it is taken out and put into what is called
an air-blast churn. I have forgotten what they call those things. But
it is a conical- shaped arrangement, holding probably 200 or 300 gallons
of that oil, and with an air blast or an air pipe coming from the bottom.
They take, say, 100 gallons of milk which has been ripened, and then
they put in an emulsion of 500 gallons of butter oil. Then the air is
turned on at a pressure of 108 to 110 degrees, so as not to cool the
liquid oil. That makes the most nearly perfect emulsion. They have
never been able to find so perfect an emulsion as the air blast. That
mixes the butter oil and emulsion together and puts back into the but-
ter the casein and moisture taken out by the precipitation as it was
before* melting.

After it is blown five or ten minutes with that air, so that the milk
and oil are thoroughly mixed, it is dropped suddenly into ice water in
tanks. The object of that ice is to bring back the grain into the but-
ter, because the minute it was melted it lost its grain and looked like
lard. In that condition it could never go on the market at all, any
more than oleomargarine would. So the grain is put back. When it
is dropped into the water it congeals so quickly that the particles of
milk and oil practically stick together. If any of you have been in a
shot tower and seen how they drop lead from the top of the tower into
the bottom of the tank, that is the same process that is used here. The
globules of milk congeal. Then they skim it off, take out, salt, and
work it. It does not need to be churned. It has been churned in that
conical-shaped concern.

After that it is salted and worked, and put up just as ordinary but-
ter is.

I would say, in this connection, that the butter that is used in mak-
ing that process butter is of various grades. They have inspectors,
who take out the different grades of butter and classify it, and they
make different grades of process butter from the different grades of
dairy butter. With the finest grades of process butter they take the
finest country butter, and they classify it into grades first, second,
and third grades. These butters that come in are of all shapes and
colors. But they are all butters that are largely made in the summer
time, so that they are largely of a natural color, and very little color is
required to bring them up to the natural color, because the butter from



which it is made is of the natural color, or it has been artificially colored
by the producer.

So that you see an auticolor law can not be made to apply to an
article, which already has a natural color, that is put on the market.
This process butter largely goes on the market in the winter. The
stock is very largely bought up in the summer, frozen, and stored away.
At the same time there is a good deal of winter butter. In the winter
there are a good many people who ship their butter by rail, and there
is a good deal of butter that is not shipped in the summer because the
higher prices of butter in the winter makes it desirable for people who
do not make it in the summer to make it in the winter in certain sections
of the country.

I am not here to tell you that no undesirable butter goes into pro<
butter, because I know there is. I know there is some rank butter put
into it. But the grades are classified as I have stated.

Senator DOLLIVER. What about its keeping!

Mr. KNIGHT. I do not think there is a great deal of difference
between the process and the other butters in their keeping qualities.
I have not discovered that there is. There was a time, for instance,
in the making of process butter when the oil was kept three days in
the tank to precipitate the brine.

Mr. SPRINGER. Have you any means of knowing what relation the
quantity of process butter bears to the whole quantity of butter '

Mr. KNIGHT. About three fourths of 1 per cent. The amount of
process butter last year was between 9,000,000 and 10,000,000 pounds.

Senator DOLLIVER. How does it sell on the market?

Mr. KNIGHT. The value of process butter is based entirely upon the
value of the materials that enter into it. There is some margin, but I
do not know how much; about 3 or 4 cents a pound 1 should judge.
There is a considerable loss between the stock from which process but-
ter is made and the manufactured article for this reason, that the
country butter usually contains a great amount of moisture and over-
loss, as we call it, and, then, butter that goes on the market is contami-
nated to some extent; so that where the original butter has S."i per cent
of butter oil the butter by which process bitter is made will contain
only about 80 per cent, so that there is a loss of 5 per cent between the
two articles in the way of shrinkage.

Senator DOLLIVER. Is the final product of the highest grail e sub-
stantially equal, in market value and in the public estimation, to the
creamery butter?

Mr. KNIGHT. There is a difference in price of - to 4 cents a pound
usually.

Senator DOLLIVER. Are dealers deceived in it!

Mr. KNIGHT. 1 do not believe that jobbers are deceived in it at all,
any more than they are in oleomargarine. I believe that every jobber
knows every process butter manufactured in the Tinted States. I
believe that to be true. 1 do not believe that there is one pound of
process butter sold as process butter to where there are three 01 four
pounds sold as butter alone. There has never been a distinction made
in the general market between butter and butter. There are creamery
butter, dairy butter, and different butters, but the consumer does not
usually make the distinction. He goes and asks tor butter, and if
butter is shown him he buys it largely by his own judgment and taste.
You never can get the melted taste out of that butter. After butter is
oune melted it has that old taste, and an expert can always tell it.

. I presented the other day a letter from John F. Dab-




U(\V, Of Danville, 111., \\h '-.fated lli.ii he sold about, ,'*,000 pound ,l
i :i i ic id In it In oil hand, I lie Kind I li;t,l, i;-: u -ed in in. 1 1. in;- p ! . I nil I ( i

That represents the amount m <>m-< r.onni \ oi tiimoi-. n i,< ; ..iiii.-j.-,i

ii|i lli.il amount in one counl\ UK- ftVerftge amount, ..il.li-n-| n|, in i.l.i-

\\ imic state, of 100 .-oil n i H- \\ MI i id probably anonnt to 500^000 pouodfi

Mr. KM'.HT. Thai ll no ciilc.rioii at all, because lie may ha -. .. big
hade in thai county, and the other roiinli.- . many of then, i,ii;-hl
produce a \ ei \ small amount of I hat, Kind ot but lc,r. |{esid< ., (j,c

vrhole amount of all the butter gathered up m MM- connin- -, oi iiimoi-.

does not go into process buUer. They make I hen -,e|cc,l ions.

.Mr. SrKI.M. KK. Do the ei camei ic take any ol this?

.Mr. KINK; JIT. No; they do not, do that at, Jill no! one in ;t Lhonha.nd.

Seiialor ALU-..V Mur.li :>i it irt WOrUe<| o\er hy deale,iH.

Mr. KNKIIIT. Thai may he Inn-.

Mi-. JKI.KK. In the HJile. of this process butter in the n-ia.il deale.i
deceived or is the. consumer deceived ?

Mr. KNK'iHT. That, m someUiin^ Mial, 1 Miink yon will luive to invusti-
^at<- lo find oul. I \\ant, to sa\, in this r.n initiation and in eonnechon
\\ilh this bill, that I do l>elic\e con nnn-i , are Homehmc. d<-c,( ,
and 1 \sill say frequently led to helievc I hat, flu:- pnn^ss butter is
creamery butter. Tluit irt one, ol t,he, things lhal. when 1,he, < , nut, bill
is passed and oleomai j^anne is ;i distinct . prodne.l. from Imt.ter, will tend
to t.aKe awa\ our Ini^inesH. 1 f 1 hey can ^o oul, a nd con vin<-,<i the puUir,
that .by uetlin^ 1 his ole,oiliai-.'ai ine I hey have, an ah-olulejy pun-, piod
net and that there is no danger of KeU.iiitf any ranejd bnM.r or any-
thing that is worked over, they have, got to eonvnice Uie public, and
prove, to the, public, that, when thc,y are, buying pure, butter they are
getting something which is wholesome.

Senator DOLLIVKK. Von agree with Secretary Wilwon when he
says

Mr. KNIGHT. I agree with the Secretary when he says that some-
thing has got to be done. The antie.olor Jaw does not apply to it.
because it is already colored by nature. How are you going to do it?
We can not make a color distinction. 1 will nay that the dairy inter-
are, in favor of any kind of an infernal-revenue law that will reach
it. We would be in favor of an anticolor law if the article were not
already colored. These gentlemen here are howling about a 10 cent
tax. They know that if there was a 10 cent tax put on colon-d butter
it would exclude all process butter.

Mr. MiLij;it. We do not believe in unjust taxation of any kind.

Mr. SCHKLL. Where is the most of this process butter made '

Mr. KNIGHT. There are factories in Philadelphia and in differ* -nt.
parts of Pennsylvania; there are one or two in Baltimore, five or six
in Chicago, two or three or four in Ohio, a few in Michigan, one, or two
in Iowa, one in Minnesota, some in Nebraska, and some in Kansas.

Mr. MILLER, is it not a fact that most of it is made in Klgin, 111.!

Mr. KNIGHT. No; there is only one factory there. It has developed
there a great deal in the last few years because the whole process has
developed in that time.

Mr. MILLEE. I know that Weaver & Barber, of Chicago, scour our
country.

Senator DOLLIVEK. I suppose thai the general product..
ery butter has left the average poor farmer without, any market.

Mr. KNIGHT. Yes; that is true. That is a fact, i do not put this out
as an argument in favor of butter. It is a fact that, the manufacture of
process butter has increased the price of the farmers' butter practically



538 OLEOMARGARINE.

almost 100 per cent. It is worth from 5 to .1.0 cents a pound more than
it was. It is a fact also that the people used to eat this butter wit h the
filth in it, whereas now the filth is taken out of it 7 if it ever was in it;
but whatever filth was in it used to be consumed.

Mr. JELKE. It is made on the farm.

Mr. KNIGHT. I want to point to another conclusion. I think you will
all agree that butter made under any kind of favorable circumstances,
where the cows have eaten the natural grass or prepared food, is better
than butter that is left lying around and has become rancid and then
sent to Chicago to be made into oleomargarine in the winter. Every
year the retail dealer gets out his oleomargarine license, and his cus-
tomers, who have been buying butter all the time, suddenly change
their minds, and he consequently does not buy any more butter at all.
Our butter piles in our cellars, stands there three or four weeks, depre-
ciating from 3 to 5 cents on every pound; there is no sale for it. There
is where there is a tremendous loss to the dairymen.

Senator DOLLIVER. That is a very interesting statement.

Mr. KNIGHT. I think I will have to tell you how I happened to g6
into the factories. Mr. Pierson, of the Agricultural Department, came
put West and asked the manufacturers of process butter to let him
inspect their plants. The process-butter makers did not want him to
inspect their plants, for the reason that he was publishing bulletins of
everything he had got hold of, and they did not want their secret in
regard to their machinery to get out. But I was told that I might go
through the factories at any time I wanted to, and that I might take all
the time I wanted to. So I have been through the factories whenever I
have wanted to. I have been through one of them a dozen times. I have
got every process 5 I know every temperature that oil is subjected to; I
know the details of every piece of machinery; I know every churn; I
have seen the butter when it was put in there; I know everything
from A to Z. I know it sufficiently so that I was offered $5,000 for my
information by a man who knew that that concern was making the
finest kind of process butter in the country. I have been in other
process factories besides that one.

Mr. SPRINGER. Have you any means to suggest by which fraud upon
consumers can be prevented in the sale to them of process butter when
they think they are buying creamery butter?

Mr. KNIGHT. The great trouble so far has been that the chemists
have been unable to discern in their analyses the difference between
process butter and creamery butter or any other kind. Butter is but
ter. The same kind of casein enters into both, the same kind of fat,
the same kind of acid, the same amount of salt.

Senator DOLLIVER. Are these bacteria present?

Mr. KNIGHT. Those worms occur in everything. Bacteria is life.
Everything contains bacteria. Without bacteria there would be no
flavor in anything. This culture you talk about, the more you have the
better it is. Bacteria are used in the process of making process butter
to give it an absolutely pure flavor, notwithstanding it is oftentimes an
artificial flavor. It is introduced there to give a uniformed flavor; and
at the same time it is a mild flavor. It is nothing more nor less than
that.

Mr. TOMPKINS. If the people knew that, they would have as much
prejudice against it as they would have against oleomargarine.

Mr. KNIGHT. I do not think so, because all fermentation is a growth
of bacteria. Let me explain to you about this, gentlemen. There are
bacteria and bacteria, all kinds of bacteria. Bacteria are in the air.



OLEOMARGARINE. 539

Bacteria are in milk. They enter the milk from the air as soon as it
comes from the cow, and start a growth which predominates until the
milk comes up to that state of ripeness when it is lit to churn. The
idea of pure culture is that we get normal bacteria, and we try to keep
all others out of that milk. For instance, milk may be Pasteurized, or
taken to the creamery and skimmed before there is any bacteriological
development in there. Then the bacteria have such strength that they
multiply and occupy the whole field and crowd out all others, and in
that way we get a desirable flavor that is pleasant and uniform. The
best plan of producing flavor is to take the milk of a new cow, Pasteur-
ize it, sterilize it, and use that as a basis for the growth of this culture;
put it in there because there are no other bacteria then in there; and
then you cultivate your germ; then churn it into the newly skimmed
cream, and that goes through it and starts the bacterial growth which
makes it of uniform flavor. That process is used for the purpose of
obtaining a uniform flavor, as uniformity is desirable in all other things.

Senator HANSBROUGH. How are bacteria cultivated in Limburger
cheese ?

Mr. KNIGHT. It is a bacterial growth.

Senator HANSBROUGH. Of course, I understand that, but I ask the
question seriously.

Senator DOLLIVER. It certainly is not microscopic.

Mr. TOMPKINS. It is parallel with oleomargarine. Everybody admits
that it is wholesome. I quite agree that it is not unwholesome. But I
think that if the public had to be informed that it is necessary for but-
ter to be impregnated with bacteria the public would be prejudiced
against that butter. We need a process of bacterial purification.
Colonel Waring, of New York, has invented such a process. I have
seen him take the worst sort of sewage and put it through his purify-
ing process, and as the water came out at the other end the residual
product was perfectly pure, and I have seen him drink it without preju-
dice, but I think the public would object to that. At the same time
that water, after its purification by his process, is better water than the
cities furnish, provided the process be carried far enough. I acknowl-
edge it is offensive to see a man drink it, much less drink it yourself.
Prejudices apply to all these processes, even if the result obtained is
perfect. It is nothing but prejudice. But in another case where that
sentiment and prejudice exist, if you make a requirement against one
you ought to make it against the other.

Mr. KNIGHT. Let me tell you something about these bacteria, which
you say are an artificial culture. It is not necessary to use them.
Exactly the same results can be obtained from skimmed milk. There
is not one creamery in a hundred that uses them.

Mr. TOMPKINS. That might do in making butter, but they do use it,
and there is a prejudice against it.

Mr. KNIGHT. I want to take issue on that, because I am in the butter
trade and am the publisher of a paper devoted to the business. I do
not believe there is any such prejudice. The amount of the artificial
culture is merely a drop in a tincupful.

Mr. TOMPKINS. How many bacteria are there in a drop ?

Mr. KNIGHT. There might be 4,000,000. There is nothing there but
the milk. That drop starts the whole thing and the rest is develop-
ment.

The committee adjourned until Saturday, January 12, 1901, at 10,30
a.m.



540 OLEOMARGARINE.

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY,

UNITED STATES SENATE,
Washington, D. (7., January 12, 1901.
The committee met at 10.30 a. in.

Present: Senators Proctor (chairman), Money, Dolliver, Bate, and
Hansbrough; also, Charles Y. Knight, secretary National Dairy Union;
Mr. Schell, Mr. Miller, Mr. Jelke, and others.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is anybody who desires to go on this morn-
ing, he may proceed.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE E. PAUL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Mr. PAUL. Gentlemen, to start with, I will have to give my experience
as a dealer in butter, oleomargarine, etc., from the time that I started
in business in Philadelphia. I started in the produce business in Phil-
adelphia in 1871. At that time, or prior to that, I was a merchant in
Ohio, shipping large quantities of butter to Philadelphia. That quality
of butter was eagerly sought after in the Philadelphia market at that
time. The Philadelphia market was a peculiar market, accepting rolls
and prints as the principal butter. The different colored butter that
was coming onto the market at that time was from fresh milked cows,
and also from green-fed cattle. Other cattle that were not fed so well
produced white butter.

Senator MONEY. You had several grades of color?

Mr. PAUL. Yes, sir.

Senator MONEY. In natural butter?

Mr. PAUL. Natural butter; yes, sir.

Senator MONEY. Which shade was the dominant color?

Mr. PAUL. White.

Senator MONEY. White was the predominant shade?

Mr. PAUL. Yes, sir.

Senator MONEY. White would be called the color of butter, then?

Mr. PAUL. Yes, sir; and that butter was eagerly sought after in that
time of the year back in the early seventies. Of course later on we
had a butter produced in New York State that was held from summer
until spring, which was pretty highly colored, owing to the grass-fed
cattle. That butter is practically out of the market at the present
time, owing to the existence of creameries. Solid packed butter, which
is the predominant butter ot the West, was never sought after in the
Philadelphia markets, and yet to this day prints and rolls are the prin-
cipal butter in Philadelphia. Nearby butter in the neighborhood of
Philadelphia is the very tine butter made in the United States. We
do not except anything.

Senator MONEY. What do you mean by prints and rolls?

Mr. PAUL. Prints are 1-pound packages, which were put up by the
farmers' wives, and they used to bring them into the market and sell
them to the different gentlemen for their fine butter.

Senator MONEY. What are the rolls?

Mr. PAUL. One pound, 2-pound any sized roll of country butter.

Senator MONEY. It is the same butter?

Mr. PAUL. The same butter; yes, sir. This grade of butter con-
tinued coming along to the market for quite a while; but on account of
a proportion of poor butter from the West coming in there, it became
difficult to dispose of this butter at a profit to the people who purchased
it. On the top of the packages there would probably be good rolls,
and in the bottom and in the center there would be white, cheesy, and



OLEOMARGARINE. 541

milky rolls which lost to the purchaser more than they made of good
butter that was on top of the packages.

In the spring of the year, as I have been saying, we had this Itfew
York State butter, that had been speculated in and held over, and the
holding of that butter had produced a peculiar flavor. We used to call
it a fishy flavor. About the years 1877, 1878, or 1879 oleomargarine
was introduced in the market. It was uniform in color, uniform in size
of packages, and uniform in rolls. It was very nice, fine looking goods,
sweet and fresh as the summer-made goods. It drove that class of
butter out of the market; and I may say that class of butter was finally
driven into the creameries that are in existence at the present time.

Senator MONEY. I do not want to interrupt you, so as to cause you
to lose the thread of your argument, but I want information on this
subject. What became of that butter? You say it was driven out of
the market. Where did it go?

Mr. PAUL. Those small dairies were driven into the creameries.
They delivered the milk to the creameries.

Senator MONEY. The material went into the creameries?

Mr. PAUL. Yes, sir; the milk went into the creameries. The intro-
duction of oleomargarine showed these people that the people of the
country wanted something fresh and sweet all the time; that they did
not want summer butter palmed off on them in winter as fresh butter.
People had been accustomed to that old flavor or taste, but at the pres-
ent time you can not get people to eat it. There is a sort of butyric
acid arises in old butter, and while it is not strong in flavor, it has a
sort of nauseating taste. After you eat it it produces gas, and a sort
of fishy, nasty taste will arise from it. That class of butter is practi-
cally driven out of the market by the introduction of oleomargarine.

That continued, as I said before, and we were large shippers of this