Commissioner of Agriculture. 65 



No association shall adopt any trademark of any county already 

 on file, or use that of any other county in the formation of a trade 

 mark. 



It would seem that there was no demand for this law in the 

 beginning, or else that the people were unaware of the fact of its 

 enactment, as there have been no applications for filing county 

 trade marks in this office since its passage nearly three years ago. 



VINEGAR. 



There has been no litigation during the year under the 

 vinegar law that is of importance. The law having been 

 established in the case of the People v. Girard (145 N. Y. 

 105), reported in my second annual report to you, has not 

 been further questioned in any action on appeal. That case 

 settled the cons'titutionality of that portion of the law pro- 

 hibiting the coloring of vinegar with any artificial coloring 

 matter whatever. I assume that an examination of the law 

 by the people who w^ould be interested in having it declared 

 unconstitutional has convinced them that the other provisions of 

 the law;, namely, the standard and manufacture of it in imitation 

 or semblance of a better commodity, is sufficiently covered and 

 virtually settled by the oleomargarine and milk cases that 

 have been taken to the court of last resort. I think I am correct, 

 with reference to this, when I state that the constitutionality of all 

 its phases has been declared, and it remains but to enforce it by 

 stopping clandestine violations by small dealers, and by those 

 who seek to evade and avoid the law rather than test it; those we 

 believe are not numerous in the State; yet there are some who will 

 take such chances, as is shown by the cases made and reported 

 by the Assistant Commissioners in their respective districts. 



I believe that a majority of the vinegar producers of the State 

 are in favor of this statute, to say nothing of the consumers of vine- 

 gar who, of course, are materially interested in having the com- 

 modity a pure one. There was a time when a large quantity of 

 vinegar was shipped into this State from outside of it, by concerns 

 that manufactured it in such close resemblance of cider vinegar 



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