172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



propriate gifts for royal personages. Venice and Genoa se- 

 cured their commercial supremacy chiefly by their control 

 of the routes over which spices were brought from India to 

 European ports, and later the Portuguese, by the discovery 

 of the water route to the spice countries, around the Cape of 

 Good Hope, undermined the wealth of the rival Italian cities 

 and ruled for a time the market. At the present time the 

 spices do not command such fabulous prices as formerly, but 

 they are still more expensive than most articles of diet, owing 

 to the cost of transportation from distant countries, custom 

 duties, and frequent change of hands. Vanilla beans, and 

 some other products used for flavoring, are now more valu- 

 able than the spices and are sources of considerable wealth 

 to the countries producing them. The best grades of vanilla 

 beans are today literally worth more than their weight in 

 silver and the flavoring matter of these vanilla beans is worth 

 more than its weight in gold. 



Whether or not all these flavoring materials add to or de- 

 tract from the wholesomeness of our foods is an open ques- 

 tion. Agreeable flavors, like pleasant surroundings, are con- 

 ducive to a contented mind, and a contented mind promotes 

 digestion, but, on the other hand, some of these flavors, such 

 as oil of cloves and other essential oils, are antiseptics which 

 may to some extent interfere with the proper action of the 

 digestive fluids. 



Without entering further into this discussion, most of us 

 will agree that while over-seasoning renders foods distasteful 

 and unwholesome, the increase in palatability gained by the 

 judicious use of flavors more than counterbalances their pos- 

 sible injurious action. 



One of the chief drawbacks to the use of spices and flavor- 

 ing extracts is the gross adulteration to which they are sub- 

 ject, which not only increases their expense to the consumer, 

 but also very greatly diminishes their strength and flavor. 



Attention has been called to the adulteration of spices at 

 previous meetings of this Board and on other occasions, as 

 well as in the food reports of our Station, but as some here 

 present may not be familiar with these frauds, a word may not 

 be inappropriate at this time. 



According to a conservative estimate, the people in our 

 little State spent during 1896, the year the pure food lav; went 



