394 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ther than that, the number of manufacturers who have been 

 pushing their goods in Massachusetts has increased. When 

 the national supreme court rendered its now famous Plumley 

 decision, sustaining the constitutionality of the anti-color 

 law, the large Chicago manufacturers withdrew from Massa- 

 chusetts. They said that, whatever might be their opinion 

 of the law, they could not afford to stand before the com- 

 munity as law breakers. As a result of this decision, all 

 of the counterfeit butter that came into Massachusetts for 

 several years was made in Rhode Island, by companies bear- 

 ing the names — somewhat peculiar for the business in which 

 they were engaged — of " Vermont " and " Oakdale." Dur- 

 ing the past year the greed of gain has led two large Chicago 

 manufacturers to climb sheepishly down from the pedestal 

 of virtue on which they had been posing, and enter the 

 scramble for dollars by defying the laws of the Common- 

 wealth. These large manufacturers have made cities and 

 towns in other States near the Massachusetts line the base 

 of their operations, and in many instances have resorted to 

 tricks that would bring a blush of envy to the average 

 kitchen bar room proprietor. 



On these accounts we have had no lack of work. Our 

 agents have travelled more miles, made more inspections and 

 procured more evidence than in any previous year. 



We have had 63 cases in court. Evidence has also been 

 secured in a number of others which it was impossible to try 

 in time to go into the year's records. The charges were as 

 follows : — 



Violating the anti-color law, 47 



Violating the hotel-restaurant law, 13 



Obstructing an officer, 3 



Total, 63 



It will l)e noticed that only two forms of complaint have 

 been used. Some years we have brought charges for violat- 

 ing as many as eight different laws, but in every case the 

 anti-color law was one of the number which was violated. As 

 courts do not like to multiply cases based on a single trans- 

 action, and as violation of the anti-coloi' law is easily proved, 

 we have adopted the practice of making all complaints for the 



