No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 289 



Wisconsin authorizes the issuing of warrants to search 

 places where imitation butter or cheese is believed to be 

 concealed, and provides for the confiscation of such imita- 

 tion dairy products, and their destruction under the direc- 

 tion of the court or magistrate. 



Michigan provides that "the taking of orders or the mak- 

 ing of agreements or contracts by any person, firm or cor- 

 poration, or by any agent or representative thereof, for the 

 future delivery of any of the articles, products, goods, wares 

 or merchandise embraced within the provisions of this act, 

 shall be deemed a sale." 



Critics of the oleomargarine laws sometimes raise the 

 point that there is sometimes a departure from strict hon- 

 esty in handling some grades of real butter. There is no 

 logic in this. If A is guilty of deception, his fault is not 

 lessened because B has also practised deception. It is a fact 

 that there are some things in the butter trade which cannot 

 be wholly approved. But it doesn't help one man out of the 

 mud to find some one else with his coat spattered. The pro- 

 cesses for working and renovating low-grade butter have 

 been so perfected as to render the product a satisfactory arti- 

 cle for quick consumption ; still, as it is ordinarily sold, it is 

 more or less tainted with deception. The product really 

 comes from the cow's udder, but when it is sold as "fresh 

 creamery butter" it is a fraud on the consumer and an injury 

 to legitimate business. This product till recently has been 

 known in the trade as " process butter," and by that name it 

 could be honestly sold, although when it was distributed by 

 the retail trade it frequently became " fresh creamery." Lat- 

 terly the trade has adopted the name of " sterilized butter," 

 which is not only a misnomer, but deceptive. The word 

 " process " was open to objections, but the expression " ster- 

 ilized" is even worse. We have had a number of specimens 

 of these kinds of butters analyzed, and in each case the 

 chemist has reported that the product was in some respects 

 unusual, although he was obliged to class it with the pure 

 butters. 



We understand that the process of melting and aerating 

 butter and re-working it in fresh milk was begun some seven 

 or eight years ago. From that starting point the business has 



