DAIRY MEETING. 1 59 



up to you, gentlemen of the creameries, to begin lessening the 

 amount of color. As Brother Gilbert said about changing the 

 feed of the calf, you can go about it in such a way that the 

 public will never step upon it, and in my judgment this use of 

 poisonous dyes is not wise. You say you are using a harmless 

 color. This is true in a sense, but it carries a caustic poison. 

 This coloring matter you are using, in my judgment, must be 

 kept out of food. The law is that the foods shall be labelled 

 and the facts stated, if coloring matter is present. If I rightly 

 understand public sentiment, there is going to be a demand 

 presently that these two articles which are exempt from this 

 general requirement shall come under the regulations of the law, 

 and when public sentiment demands it, it must be done. I 

 wonder if you cannot begin thinning down a little, educating 

 the taste to a little less color? • 



Another thing, we have breeding associations, and they will 

 come to us and say that with certain breeds high colored butter 

 cannot be produced. There is no reason, if I am a breeder and 

 am producing richly colored butter at this time of the year, that 

 you shall come along with your dye and imitate it. I presume 

 I have said a disagreeable thing, and I know you can see lots 

 of reasons why we should color our butter, but in my judgment 

 the time is sure to come when we will be obliged to omit the 

 coloring matter. 



L. S. Merrill. At the present time the most insistent 

 demand is coming from the oleomargarine people, for this rea- 

 son, — they are able to place upon the market an immense quan- 

 tity of oleomargarine that is such a close imitation of butter 

 that it could not be told from genuine butter by the color. We 

 see sometimes an account of colored oleomargarine being placed 

 upon the market. Some of our papers have called attention 

 to the fact that it was decreasing in amount. It means simply 

 this : The amount of oleomargarine which the manufacturers 

 are able to make and place on the market in close imitation of 

 butter through the selection of natural fats has increased to such 

 an extent that they do not have to color that product. They 

 only color oleomargarine to supply the demand in excess of the 

 amount they are able to make by the selection of fats to resemble 

 butter. The colored oleomargarine is subject to a tax of ten 



