464 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



become mixed with the fat, and yield a product that would be 

 neither good butter nor poor cheese. 



A second article of an even more fraudulent nature has also 

 been sold by agents. It goes under the name of " Gilt Edge But- 

 ter Compound." It guarantees to make two pounds of butter 

 from one pound of butter and a quart of sweet milk. In general 

 the directions were to warm the butter until soft, mix in the milk 

 and add as much of the compound as could be placed on a one 

 cent piece and mix all together. The resulting butter (?) will 

 weigh two pounds. This " Gilt Edge Butter Compound " is a 

 mixture of about equal parts of alum and soda with a little pink 

 coloring matter. It was sold in ounce packages for |1. 



These substances would act in a similar way to the acid in the 

 " Increaser," i. e., by incorporating the casein and also a consider- 

 able amount of water with the cream. This incorporated casein 

 furnishes a medium for the growth and multiplication of millions 

 of organisms. It is to remove this casein and so get rid of these 

 germs that butter is so carefully washed. 



While the food preservatives may have some valuable uses, 

 as keeping milk samples for composite tests, there is absolutely 

 no excuse for " Butter Increasers " in an honest community. 

 They are fraudulent in that they pretend to teach the producer 

 how he can get more butter from cream than there is in it. They 

 promote dishonesty by throwing in the way of an unscrupulous 

 producer a means of defrauding his customers; and worse than 

 all, the use of these " Increasers " is an attempt to put on the 

 market a product which not only cheats the producer but may 

 possibly endanger the health of the consumer. 



' GEORGE W. CAVANAUGH. 



