212 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [436 



knew milk. The universal demand for cheap things brings a 

 supply. Wheat flour is adulterated with corn flour ; buckwheat 

 with wheat middlings. Vermont maple syrup is made that 

 never saw Vermont, and is made from the sap of trees that 

 grow in the heart of Chicago. Glucose has dethroned cane 

 syrup. Cider vinegar is distilled from grain. A good portion 

 of the strained honey of commerce never produced any strain 

 upon the bees. Milk is robbed of its cream, filled with lard 

 and sent all over the world to ruin the reputation of American 

 Cheese. Borax and formaldehyde go into milk to kill babies 

 and weaken invalids. Oysters are practically embalmed with 

 chemicals. Lemon extracts are made without lemon oil and 

 vanilla extracts without vanilla. The hogs of the North com- 

 pete with the cheap cotton-seed oil of the South, and mix in 

 the same tub under the banner of lard. Artificial smoke is 

 made for hams out of poisonous drugs. Jellies colored in 

 imitation of the natural fruits and sold as fruit jellies flood 

 the market, although they are almost as destitute of fruit juice 

 as a bar of pig iron. The embalmed beef business has been 

 exaggerated, but we do not need any either for soldiers or 

 civilians. Canned fruit is preserved with antiseptics, which 

 delay the digestive processes. Baking powders under mislead- 

 ing names crowd the markets. Spices enriched with pepper 

 hulls and ground cocoanut shells are manufactured and sold 

 by the ton. The close partnership which has existed for so 

 many years between coffee and chicory does a thriving business 

 in many states under the firm name of coffee. Cheapness is 

 secured by these adulterations and false labeling, but the people 

 are defrauded. 



Before Prof. Adams wrote the above paragraph a num- 

 ber of states had enacted dairy laws prohibiting the adul- 

 teration of dairy products and in 1886 the government fol- 

 lowed with a federal law regulating the manufacture of 

 oleomargarine and the renovating of butter. The legisla- 

 tion on the adulteration of dairy products was followed in 



