DAIRY MEETING. 



177 



perfect in this world, but there has been an honest intention to 

 comply with your desire, with a corps of inspectors all over the 

 country. That law requires, first, that every tub or box of reno- 

 vated butter coming from the factory shall have upon it a reve- 

 nue stamp, a label and a brand showing unmistakably what is in 

 the package. Then every package, whether print, box or tub, 

 must have the words "Renovated Butter" impressed into the 

 butter itself. And if it is in prints the wrapper must bear the 

 words "Renovated Butter," which must be the largest of any 

 on the wrapper, and there must be no fraudulent, deceptive or 

 misleading trade mark or advertisement. Further, the reno- 

 vated butter must be sold only from the original package. Then, 

 again, the factories where renovated butter is manufactured 

 must be inspected by the department in order to make sure that 

 nothing but what is wholesome is used, that the methods are 

 cleanly and that no adulterants are employed. And finally, no 

 renovated butter can be exported, unless it has been inspected 

 and bears a certficate of the inspector of the Dairy Division. 



Perhaps you may inquire, "Of what use is all this to Maine 

 dairymen?" I will partially answer with a little personal expe- 

 rience which is not wdiolly complimentary. In carrying out the 

 instructions of this law and of the department, I paid a visit to 

 Lewiston one day last summer and spent some time in looking 

 around among the grocery stores. I went into several stores 

 and asked, "What kind of butter do you have here?" The 

 answer was, "We keep two kinds, creamery butter and farmers' 

 butter." It developed that with the grocers of Lewiston, at 

 least, the expression "farmers' butter" is a kind of trade name 

 meaning second class butter. Consumers who want first class 

 butter buy the creamery butter ; for the cheaper trade the grocers 

 have "farmers' butter." I hope the influence of this dairymen's 

 association will be such that as the years go by the stigma will 

 be removed from the word farmer, and that it will not be synony- 

 mous for a second class article. But the point I started to 

 make was that if these grocers should supply the demand for 

 a second quality butter with renovated butter the demand for the 

 product of the Maine dairymen would be greatly curtailed ; hun- 

 dreds and hundreds of pounds of farmers' butter which are now 

 reaching consumers in the cities of Maine would not find a mar- 



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