PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 179 



adulterated, chiefly with cottonseed, mustard, and sunflower oils, and 

 to a less extent with several others, such as lard, rapeseed, maize or 

 corri, poppyseed, etc. Sunflower oil makes an excellent salad dressing, 

 and h} gienically is perhaps as good as olive oil; but the fraud consists 

 in selling the sunflower or cottonseed oil at the same price as olive oil. 

 It is claimed that cottonseed oil clogs the system. 



Flours. Very little, if any, of the white flours of the Paciflc Coast are 

 spurious. Not so in the East, however, where corn products are employed 

 as fillers, and in the old country clay and gypsum. 



Gluten flour is a material which, while not adulterated, is not always 

 what the label represents it to be. This meal is recommended by physi- 

 cians for individuals suifering from diabetes, on the supposition that 

 such flour will contain the minimum amount of starch. Many samples 

 have been analyzed by our Station, with the result that very few are 

 entitled to the name gluten flour. The majority of the specimens 

 examined rated in starch content but little below that of a first-class 

 whole-wheat meal; the cost, however, ranged much higher. Here we 

 have a double fraud. In the first place, the patient is consuming a 

 greater proportion of starch than is advisable; and secondly, the outlay 

 is from three to five times what it should be. If a person asks for a forty 

 per cent gluten flour and receives an article only yielding fifteen per 

 cent, the deception is apparent. Then again, when a gluten flour is 

 desired, perhaps a large percentage of bran is obtained. We have 

 another case of imposition, and a good illustration of the fact that 

 chemical analysis alone is not a sufficient guide to the physiological or 

 nutritive value of a food. The digestive coefficient of the protein or 

 albuminoids in a gluten flour is far higher than that for a meal, show- 

 ing a high percentage of bran, although the percentage of protein in 

 both cases may be identical. 



Butter: From the first day of January, 1894, to March, 1895, 450,000 

 pounds of oleomargarine were sold in this State; of this, 300,000 pounds 

 were manufactured in the State and 150,000 pounds imported. The 

 unlimited sale of the oleomargarine resulted in a loss to the dairy 

 industry of over $100,000. Since the passage of the law in 1895 for the 

 prevention of deception in the manufacture and sale of butter and 

 cheese, very little has been sold. Oleo is the chief ingredient in- 

 spurious butter, and the presence is easily ascertained by the expert 

 chemist. Owing to this fact, and the expense attending the establishing 

 of a plant for the manufacture of oleo, but little of this imitation butter 

 is found on the market. (Oleo is sterilized fat from the beef, strained 

 and pressed, stearine remaining behind; and the liquid = oleo neutral oil 

 made from lard as above, except that no stearine is ex^tracted.) 



The tiutritive value of good oleomargarine is fully equal to that of 

 gC)od butter, and without doubt will keep fresh for a much longer time. 



