l68 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE;. 



Hallowell, Lewiston, Madison, Portland, Rockland, Saco, South 

 Portland, and Waterville, eighteen in all. 



The milk and butter inspection in this State has been sadly 

 neglected, except when the Department of Agriculture has taken 

 action and secured conviction in former years. Part of the cities 

 have maintained a system of milk inspection, while another part 

 have neglected to even appoint an inspector. The inspectors 

 that have been appointed have in some instances done satisfac- 

 tory work, while others have done but little or nothing towards 

 correcting the evils which I have found to exist in certain locali- 

 ties. The conditions existing in certain towns and cities, in my 

 judgment, warrant a better system of enforcement than they are 

 at present receiving, for protection of health and lives of thou- 

 sands of infants who are forced to use dangerous additions of 

 foreign substance in their daily food, and no condemnation is too 

 great for those officials who are supposed to be doing this work 

 and under whose protection, milkmen are using adulterations. 

 We have made prosecutions as follows: On Jan. 31, Henry J, 

 Lessard and James N. O'Hara were before the Portland munic- 

 ipal court for serving oleomargarine to guests without notifying 

 them of the fact. Cases were continued until Feb. 2, when the 

 case against Henry J. Lessard w^as nol prossed and Bradford J. 

 Roderick was substituted, who with James N. O'Hara pleaded 

 guilty and were bound over to the May term of Superior Court, 

 when they were duly fined. Sept. 27, John O. Burgess of South 

 Portland was brought before the South Portland Municipal court 

 on charge of selling milk to which formaldehyde had been added. 

 He pleaded nolo contendere and was fined twenty dollars and 

 costs. These prosecutions were aggravated cases, but we have 

 tried to give everyone a full explanation of the law, so there 

 could be no mistakes nor persecution. The work for the past two 

 years has been largely of an educational nature, though the pros- 

 ecutions had a very wholesome effect and certain conditions point 

 to the probability of still more to follow. 



During the first of the year, I made an inspection of Portland's 

 supply of milk with the Wisconsin Curd test, the result being 

 generally very satisfactory ; the condition of the railroad milk 

 was found to be very good for that class of product, so far as 

 gases and odors were concerned, and the amount of total solids 

 was up to standard and as good as we could expect. There are 



