182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



What happened after that? The Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury called our attention to an invoice of a chemical com- 

 pound. It was not invoiced as liquid egg, which it really 

 was, because we would inspect that, as we had the other. 

 This came in as a chemical compound, but the Secretary of 

 the Treasury called oiu" attention to it, and we found it 

 before it got on shore. 



And that is not the only thing that the farmers come in 

 contact with. We have farmers in this country outside of 

 Massachusetts, in California, for instance, and they grow 

 the best olive oil you can find in the United States. It 

 brings a high price in the market, on its merits. They 

 have good imported oil, too, but this California olive oil 

 is in great demand. And we found that our California olive 

 oil makers were not onh' brought into competition with 

 domestic adulterated olive oil, — made largely of cotton- 

 seed oil, — but they were brought into competition with a 

 foreign article imported as olive oil which wasn't olive oil 

 at all. Under the law of correct labelling we exclude 

 these oils. If we can find a cargo coming into this country 

 as California olive oil, which isn't California olive oil, we 

 exclude it because it is misbranded. This is in the interest 

 of the California olive oil producer, as well as the consumer 

 everywhere. So in this we are helping the farmer in Cali- 

 fornia by saving him from unjust competition with this 

 foreign article. 



AVhat happens next? We find a cargo of oil coming from 

 a foreign country, and we are surprised to find it marked in 

 the name of some mission in California, with a picture of 

 it on the label, which sets forth the merits of the olive oil, 

 — the more label you find on an olive bottle, the more 

 fraud you will find, as a rule. What Avas the object of that? 

 These importers knew that the California olive oil is valued 

 because of its fine (juality, and so used this label on their 

 product. It was a pure olive oil, — it wasn't an adulterated 

 article, — but it was a foreign article labelled " Pure Cali- 

 fornia olive oil," and therefore is excluded because it is 

 falsely branded. This was an attempt to evade the law, and 

 bring the California producer again into unfair competition. 



