No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 49 



product of less than a half dozen factories. It is also evident that 

 when creamery butter is selling at low prices, the demand for reno- 

 vated butter decreases in a corresponding degree. An official com- 

 pilation shows that during the year 1904, the average wholesale price 

 of renovated butter in the New York markets was 16.53 cents per 

 pound, as compared with about 22 cents per pound for the average 

 grade of creamery butter. These prices represent the average for 

 the entire year. 



LABELING RENOVATED BUTTER. 



The renovated butter law of Pennsylvania is plain and specific 

 in its provisions, and demands the proper branding of all packages 

 or parcels containing this product, whether it is being sold or deliv- 

 ered by the manufacturer, jobber or retailer. While there may exist 

 a legitimate demand for renovated or process butter, the experi- 

 ence and observations of the past have confirmed the belief that a 

 very large percentage of the article was sold as ^'creamery but- 

 ter," contrary to the laws of Pennsylvania. If manufacturers will 

 persist in selling the product without the proper branding, they do 

 so at their own risks. The trade has been liberally supplied with 

 copies of the law governing its sale. 



NATIONAL PURE FOOD LEGISLATION. 



No vote was reached on the National Pure Food Bill by the Sen- 

 ate at the last session of Congress, nor did the measure obtain any 

 formal consideration by that body, but on April 6, 1904, Senator Hep- 

 burn, speaking upon a resolution calling for certain information 

 relating to adulterated foods, found opportunity for expressing him- 

 self very freely on this important subject. He pointed out the neces- 

 sity for such legislation as is contemplated by the Pure Food Bill. 

 The Hepburn Bill had already passed the House, but as it failed to 

 reach a vote in the Senate, the whole matter must necessarily be 

 taken up de novo in the Fifty-ninth Congress. Its fate remains prob- 

 lematical at this writing. 



NEED OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION. 



It is to be hoped that some legislation that will be satisfactory 

 to the advocates of pure food, as well as to those empowered with 

 authority to enforce the pure food laws in the various states of the 

 Union, may be enacted by Congress, and that such Act of Congress 

 may be both equitable and fair, so that its justice cannot be ques- 

 tioned by any class, whether producer, dealer or official charged with 

 the enforcement of the law. 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF MERCHANTS. 



The Dairy and Food Commissioner has repeatedly received com- 

 plaints from merchants and others upon whom fines and costs were 

 imposed, to the effect that they "did not manufacture the adulter- 

 ated or unlawful goods upon which prosecutions were brought, and 

 that the jobber or manufacturer should have been arrested and held 

 responsible for these infractions of the law." These same defend- 

 ants, by way of extenuating excuse, further declared that the mer- 

 chandise was purchased from parties located outside of Pennsyl- 

 4—7—1904 



