438 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



During the year we have found the law violated in an 

 unusual number of hotels and restaurants. In many in- 

 stances the proprietors or managers were innocent of any 

 attempt to deceive ; they were themselves deceived by the 

 person of whom they purchased their supplies ; they ordered 

 butter, paid a butter price for what they bought, and sup- 

 posed they were serving butter. In 12 instances the de- 

 fendants testified to such facts ; but in many others the 

 same information came to us informally, but the defendants 

 were found guilty in court, and the fines paid, under cir- 

 cumstances that made us feel certain that the dealer had 

 stood back of his customer, and paid the fine and expenses. 

 As the fine for selling imitation butter is $100, while the 

 fine for serving it in a restaurant is only $10, it is self-evi- 

 dent that the dealer could well afford to hush up in this way 

 any evidence of his own moral obliquity. In one case the 

 attorney of a dealer boldly stood up in court and defended 

 the restaurant manager without having been employed by 

 the latter, in order to use legal skill in suppressing the evi- 

 dence asrainst the dealer aforesaid. 



For the first time in the history of anti-color legislation 

 in this State a violator of the law has been sentenced to im- 

 prisonment, and is serving his sentence. The defendant 

 was a persistent seller of colored oleomargarine, which he 

 disposed of as and for butter. He paid a fine in Spring- 

 field ; he was detected selling the article in Worcester, but 

 ran away ; he was found backing another dealer in Holyoke 

 and Chicopee ; and finally he was caught pedling in Brock- 

 ton. He represented himself as agent of the St. Albans 

 creamery, and said its superior product could be obtained 

 only of him. His price was 24 cents per pound. He was 

 a good salesman, and by going from house to house and 

 telling this story he could sell many five-pound boxes in a 

 day, with the minimum risk of detection. But we secured 

 the facts, and put him into the Brockton police court on 

 three complaints. It was his expectation that the usual fine 

 of $100 would be imposed, which fine he was prepared to 

 pay. Doubtless after charging it off to expense he could 

 show a balance on the right side of the account. He was, 



