230 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



would disdain to sell their goods if debased or misbranded. Yet, in spite 

 of all this, undoubtedly the percentage of adulteration, sophistication, and 

 misbranding largely exceeds, in my opinion, five per cent, of the whole, 

 and I am confident that fifteen per cent, would be much nearer the mark. 

 Such an estimate would give the startling figures of loss to the people of 

 this country alone of $675,000,000 per year. 



Michigan has about one in thirty-one of the population of the country. 

 If her share of the loss is in proportion it amounts to more than $21,774,- 

 000 per year. 



What shall be done about the matter? The advice of the writer is to 

 push ahead just as we have done; to unite with all bodies who are in 

 sympathy with us, like the State Dairymen's association, agitate the mat- 

 ter in every possible manner, through the press, through organized local 

 societies, and in any way which offers opportunity. We must take a 

 broader view than merely to secure the enforcement of a vinegar law. 

 And the U. S. laws are not enough. Respecting oleomargarine, they are 

 but half enforced. In Detroit, vigilance is maintained until the tax is 

 paid, after which, in many cases, the product is still retailed for butter, 

 and in the pine woods and in the northern peninsula it is undoubtedly 

 done to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly. 



We have to contend with a cry for fewer officers. It would be folly for 

 us, therefore, to ask for vinegar inspectors, and for the dairymen to ask for 

 state inspection of butter and dairy products, when one set of officers 

 could well attend to both matters and to the inspection of scores of other 

 foods which are subject to adulteration. 



There are laws in the Minnesota and Ohio statutes which fully cover 

 our needs. The workings, both of the laws and the commissions, are not 

 experimental at this stage. Any of our legislators who are interested will 

 have no difiiculty in gaining information, and to such the bulletins of 

 the Agricultural department at Washington and of the commissioners for 

 Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and of 

 other states will furnish instructive as well as entertaining reading. The 

 work of these commissions lies largely, and perhaps principally, in 

 making analyses and publishing them. People are not knowingly hum- 

 bugged to any great extent. In Ohio the sale of a beverage known as 

 " orange cider " at one time reached large proportions. Upon analysis it 

 proved " sweetened water, sharpened up with citric and tartaric acid and 

 flavored with the oil or extract of orange." The cost was about 16 cents. 

 It was retailed at $2.50 per gallon. In ten days after the fraud had been 

 published, the whole business collapsed. 



The chemist of the Minnesota commission analyzed many samples of 

 vinegar made by the firm of Schuyler & Cook of Chicago and published 

 his results. The following from the Chicago News tells the story of the 

 power of such a commission: "We regret to make announcement of 

 the assignment of Schuyler & Cook, one of the oldest and best estab- 

 lished vinegar firms of the city. The leading grocers of Chicago and 

 the northwest have handled their goods and advertised them as being- 

 free from adulteration. The best hotels of the city have also been cus- 

 tomers of the house. About one year ago the Minnesota legislature 

 passed a bill designed to prevent the adulteration of food in that state. 

 One of the chemists of the food commission made analyses of different sam- 

 ples of vinegar of Schuyler & Cook's manufacture, and reported that they did 

 not come up to the Minnesota standard, hence they could not be sold as 



