No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 397 



Then can follow an increase in the tax on colored oleomarga- 

 rine, which will not jeopardize any legislation which has been 

 already secured. 



There have been no court decisions during the past year 

 of particular importance. In Michigan the anti-color law 

 has been temporarily defeated on a technical ground, the 

 claim being that the subject of the statute was not indicated 

 with sufficient clearness in the title. 



Renovated Butter. ' 



The process of gathering up low grades and refuse butter, 

 and so renovating the mass as to produce a clean, palatable 

 article, is in the abstract a gain to humanity, as is any 

 process that economizes wastes, utilizes by-products and 

 perfects or increases the world's food supply ; but when 

 avarice impels weak mankind to sell the product dishonestly, 

 when this clarified stuff is in many cases given to the con- 

 sumer as fresh creamery butter, law is necessary to protect 

 consumer, honest dealer and the better class of producers. 

 Such a state of alEFairs existed in Pennsylvania, New York, 

 Minnesota and Massachusetts last winter, to such an extent 

 as to lead to the enactment of laws requiring that packages 

 and wrappers used in the sale of this grade of butter should 

 be marked with the words " Renovated Butter." This con- 

 dition of affairs and this law has added to our work and 

 expenses, especially for chemists' analyses ; but we cannot 

 report any absolute statistics on this point, because the 

 work is closely related to the enforcement of the oleomarga- 

 rine laws. When an inspector visits a store, he is on the 

 lookout for both oleomargarine and renovated butter. Still 

 further, they are often so near alike in superficial character- 

 istics that he recognizes what he finds as something that is 

 not natural butter, and takes a sample, a chemical analysis 

 being necessary to detect the nature of the substance. 



During the year we have found no wilful violations of the 

 law. Where the goods have been found unmarked, atten- 

 tion has been called to the fact, and in every instance so far 

 there has seemingly been a willingness to comply with the 

 law ; hence there have been no prosecutions. In a few 

 instances there has appeared an attempt to evade the law by 

 having the mark or brand less distinct than the law required. 



