On account of the expensiveness of butter, there are a number of substitutes sold, which go under the name of _oleomargarine_.
These are made of the fat, or suet, of beef or mutton, mixed with a certain amount of cream and real butter, to give them an agreeable flavor.

They are wholesome and useful fats, and for cooking purposes may very largely be substituted for butter.

Owing to the fact that their fat is freer from the milk acids, they keep better than butter; and sweet, sound oleomargarine is to be preferred to rank, rancid butter.
But it is not so readily digestible as butter is; is more liable to give rise to the butyric acid fermentations in the stomach; is not nearly so appetizing; and its sale as, and under the name of, _butter_ is a fraud which the law rightly forbids and punishes.
[Illustration: A SMALL STORE, CLEANLY AND HONEST The milk is well kept, the bread and candies are under glass, and "butterine" is not sold as butter.] Lard.

The next most useful and generally used pure fat is lard--the rendered, or boiled-down, fat of pork.

It is a useful substitute for butter in cooking, where butter is scarce.