170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



During the year just closed tLere have hteu more total 

 violations of the oleomargarine laws than for some years pre- 

 vious, but they have manifested themselves in different ways. 

 The total number of all violations of laws prosecuted by the 

 Dairy Bureau in 1909 was 20G, all of which resulted in con- 

 victions. Of these, 5 were for watering milk, 33 for selling 

 renovated butter in unmarked wrappers and 168 for viola- 

 tions of the oleomargarine laws, 121 of the latter being for 

 violation of the oleomargarine restaurant law. This shows 

 an attempt to increase consumption of the goods by taking 

 chances in serving to guests in restaurants, boarding houses 

 and hotels, without proper notice. The law distinctly states 

 that notice shall be given to the guest that the substance so 

 furnished is not butter. In some cases no attempt is made 

 to give notice, and in others an attempt is made not to give 

 notice by putting up a sign where no guest can see it, or by 

 putting up a sign printed in such a way or upon such back- 

 ground that nobody sitting a short distance away can read it. 

 Legally and morally such persons are just as guilty as those 

 who make no attempt to give notice. Neither ignorance of 

 the law nor such attempts at evasion are any defense. 



It is true now, as it always has been, that oleomargarine 

 should sail under its own colors, and be sold as and for what 

 it is, entirely upon its own merits. The difference between 

 the value and cost of oleomargarine and butter, and the close 

 resemblance the former bears to the latter, make a tempta- 

 tion to sell and serve oleomargarine for l)utter so great that 

 many yield to it. Last year we warned against the practice 

 of watering milk. It seems that a warning against the 

 practice of serving oleomargarine for butter in hotels, board- 

 ing houses and restaurants, without bona fide notice to 

 guests, is now necessary. 



In the educational work of the year we have especially 

 urged that farmers weigh the milk of each cow, keep accu- 

 rate accounts, raise more grain, buy less, study feeding 

 rations, adopt practical, inexpensive methods of keeping 

 cows clean, use covered milk pails with small openings in the 

 top, and strain milk through sterilized cotton; that they 

 thoroughly mix the milk of the hoi-d before ctniniiig or 



