16 Ninth Annual Report of the 



to the mass of butter in such manner as to easily be seen and 

 read by the purchaser. No person shall sell, offer or expose for 

 sale, any butter or other dairy product containing a preservative, 

 but this shall not be construed to prohibit the use of salt in 

 butter or cheese, or spirituous liquors in club or other fancy 

 cheese or sugar in condensed milk. 



§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 



The provisions of this law are generally disregarded by those 

 dealing in this commodity within the State. I have brought no 

 actions under this statute for the simple reason that I have been 

 unable to procure the necessary evidence for conviction. I have 

 been endeavoring during the time the law has been in existence 

 to so fortify myself, from a chemical standpoint, as to be able to 

 procure the necessary evidence, but at this date have not suc- 

 ceeded. The difficulty arises from the fact that the chemists of 

 this State in the employ of the Department are unable to de- 

 1 ermine with sufficient accuracy to enable them to testify to the 

 fact of the difference between butter of the first instance and 

 renovated butter. By butter of the first instance I mean butter 

 that has not been renovated or worked over. They are able to 

 select samples of renovated butter from the other butter when 

 submitted to them with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but 

 not sufficiently sure so they would dare make affidavit to the 

 difference. The chemists are willing to swear that in their 

 judgment the goods are renovated butter, but not swear posi- 

 tively. It has not been deemed advisable to incur the risk of 

 involving the x State in bills of expense for costs by attempting 

 to try cases in which our evidence was not complete. In order 

 to remedy this difficulty we have had the chemists in the employ 

 of this Department devote as much time as they could, in con- 

 sideration of their other duties and with the means at my com- 

 mand with which to do it, experimenting to see if some method 

 could not be discovered whereby this difficulty could be reme- 

 died. I have also communicated with the National authorities 

 at Washington, asking them to give me any information they 

 might possess that would help the Department out of this diffi- 

 culty. I find that the National authorities, who arc in corre- 



