August 15, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



89 



Table V. — Rate of Special Taxes per Annum. 



1 Eectlfier ol 60) barrels, or more, per annum. 

 - Annual manufacture, 500 barrels or more. 

 3 Pedler of tobacco, flrst-olass. 



It is undoubtedly a fact that if the retailer's tax were as 

 low as that for tobacco, the manufacturers of oleomargarine 

 would pay the same to have at least one dealer to handle 

 their goods in every village and town in this country. As 

 it is, in the Chicago district, where there are seven facto- 

 ries, there were 974 retail dealers doing business in April, 

 1889, compared with 726 the April previous; in the Boston 

 district, with its one factory, there were 460 retailers in 

 April, 1889, and 405 at the corresponding time in 1888; in the 

 Connecticut district, with four factories, there were 424 in 

 1889, and 384 the year previous; and in Michigan, with no 

 factory, there were 290 and 267 respectively for the same 

 periods. These four collection districts contain over one- 

 lialf of the total number of retail dealers doing business at 

 the close of the special tax year ending April 30, 1889. This 

 would seem to indicate that where the public has been 

 brought in unprejudiced contact with oleomargarine, as sold 

 on its own merits, they have found it palatable and suitable 

 to their wants. 



I have been in retail stores in the lumber and mining 

 regions of the upper peninsula of Michigan, in Boston, 

 Chicago, and elsewhere, where as much as one-half to one 

 ton of oleomargarine is sold per week, in quantities of less 

 than ten pounds to any one purchaser at one time, put up 

 in packages duly branded with the word " Oleomargarine," 

 as required by the law and regulations. 



From a personal inspection of some of the largest factories, 

 I am convinced that the greatest cleanliness is observed 

 throughout all the operations; that nothing but the freshest 

 animal fats are used; that machinery is employed as much 

 as possible, and large quantities worked at a time, to reduce 

 the expense. The factories are as well arranged as the best 

 creameries; and it is to the manufacturer's interest to produce 

 a palatable and wholesome product, which is, however, not 

 intended to compete with " gilt-edge " butter. 



In April and May, 1888, with the aid of the local Internal 

 Eevenue officers, I made an inspection of the material sold 

 for butter in several of the large cities. Over eleven thou- 

 sand samples were collected, and it must be said that about 

 ten per cent of these were unfit for human consumption, 

 being exceedingly rancid, and in many cases actually putrid; 

 nevertheless they were genuine butters, and not mixtures 

 containing foreign fats. In our large Eastern cities there 

 are dealers in low-grade butters who put on the market what 

 is known as "ladle-packed" or "hash" butter, a compound 

 of the remnant stock of co.untry dealers worked up " with 

 additional coloring matter," to please the eye and make the 

 mass uniform. It is about as savory a grease as " prime 

 steam lard." One effect of the oleomargarine law has been 



that dealers in "hash " butter have to sell it on its own merits, 

 and not call it oleomargarine for an excuse, when their cus- 

 tomers complained of its rancid taste, as they did before the 

 law was passed. 



A few years ago the dairy commissioner of one of our 

 large States considered it necessary to issue a circular to 

 butter makers, especially to those having one or two cows, 

 embodying certain directions in regard to handling milk and 

 butter, which implies such want of common cleanliness in 

 these manipulations by the ordinary butter makers, that I 

 cannot refrain from quoting from it: — 



"Third. — Be clean and decent about your milking. Never 

 wet the teat with milk and let the drip from your dirty, 

 hands drop into the pail to spoil the fiavor of the ujilk. Re- 

 move the milk from the stable or all impure odors a^ soon 

 as possible. Use no milk pails or milk vessels of any kind 

 made of wood, but have all made of tin, and never use therp 

 except they are scalded with very hot water and made per- 

 fectly sweet and clean. 



"Fourth. — . . . Have loose covers on the cans to pre- 

 vent flies, bugs, and millers getting into the cream, and put 

 this whole business [the cans] in some room or place where 

 all the foul odors of a kitchen or pantry can not spoil its 

 flavor. 



"Sixth. — When you strain the milk into cans, have your 

 cloth milk-strainer folded from four to six thicknesses, so 

 that all manner of filth that ever gets into it will be taken 

 out. Scald the cloth then thoroughly. Never use an old 

 sour strainer for this work. . . . Have a thermometer to 

 test this [the temperature of the cream], and not stick your 

 finger in to tell by." 



I am afraid that the butter makers of this State are not the 

 only ones guilty of such practices. 



Where butter is made in small quantities at a time and 

 "salted down" between churnings, and some time elapses 

 before the tub is filled, the lower layers have probably com- 

 menced to ferment, and before long the whole lot is rancid. 



When care is taken, as in large creameries, the butter 

 maker never experiences the least trouble in selling his 

 product the year round at a remunerative price, and it is 

 only the careless man, who makes an inferior article, that 

 experiences this difficulty. 



The adulteration of butter with water and salt is as 

 much a fraud on the public as the addition of foreign fats, 

 coloring matter, or any other form of deception. Water 

 and salt are expensive luxuries when one has to pay at the 

 rate of twenty-five to forty cents a pound for them, yet that 

 is what happens if a purchaser buys four pounds of a butter 

 containing twenty per cent of water and five per cent of salt 

 — not an uncommon case. 



There is a special provision in the law in regard to the use 

 of any unwholesome material or product in the manufacture 

 of oleomargarine, but no sample has ever been submitted to 

 the Commissioner of Internal Eevenue under it. 



Owing to the construction by the Attorney- General of 

 Section 2 of the oleomargarine law, the internal revenue 

 officers exercise no control over the production and sale of 

 oleo oil, although the Commissioner has recommended that 

 Congress amend the law in that regard. From inquiries 

 that were made in June, 1888, by the collectors of iuter- 

 nal revenue, there was found to have been produced during 



