HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 155 



anything you eat you find there is scarcely anything that is pure 

 but salt; and I don't know but they will attemx^t to adulterate 

 that with sand pretty soon. (Laughter.) You can scarcely buy 

 a single ounce of unadulterated spices, or anything else you eat 

 today. A few years ago I went into one of the largest spice 

 factories in the country and was permitted to go through the es- 

 tablishment and see the process followed there of making spices. 

 I happened to be in the rear where I saw perhaps a car load of 

 cocoanut shells. And I asked the proprietor ' ' what under heav- 

 ens are you going to do with cocoanut shells?" "There are the 

 shells and there are the spices, and of course the machinery unites 

 the two!" 



I won't take up your time with this question of the adultera- 

 tion of foods by any extended remarks. I take it for granted 

 that the State Amber Cane Association and the State Dairymen's 

 Association have no interest to subserve except to stand up as 

 beacon lights to protect the interests of the body politic. We 

 of course meet together for the purpose of receiving mutual 

 benefit; and we also meet for the j)urpose of giving the public 

 the benefit of the facts and experiences; that is, we meet for a 

 mutual interchange of views and sentiments. 



Aside from any private interest that we would subserve or any 

 Individual benefit that we would desire to receive, growing out 

 of these associations we have a duty to perform: and in the dis- 

 charge of that duty we are to have in view our obligations to the 

 state. I say, gentlemen, there is nothing more important for this 

 society to do, than for its members to put themselves upon 

 record and most vigorously upon record, in favor of the establish- 

 ment of a commission in our state, looking to the prevention of 

 food adulteration of every nature and form, and by every means 

 that can be employed to protect the interests of the body politic. 

 A resolution in favor of this project if carried to St. Paul and 

 laid before the legislature with the public sentiment there is in 

 favor of it, would have a marked effect, and in time we may hope 

 to get suitable legislation upon this subject. 



Xow, when that is done the Amber cane industry as one of 

 many others will receive the benefit, and why"? Because we have 

 this product from our own soil and its profits are returned to 

 our own people; then, instead of coming in competition with 

 poisonous material, when those articles are branded and put 

 npon the market upon their own merits, our products will not 

 have to fight for a market. Instead of forty cents a gallon the 



