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Impurities in Milk and Butter. 
Recollecting the disclosures at Chicago, and knowing that 
beef fat is the foundation of the adulterants used for faking 
butter, one cannot but feel that the sooner all dairy factories 
are placed under the same inspection as the margarine factories, 
the better will it be for the public. 
Perhaps as the result of the Report of the Select Committee 
on the Butter Trade, a Bill dealing with the whole subject will 
be presented to Parliament. If so, it is to be hoped that it 
will receive the support of all parties, since adulteration of food 
cannot be considered, in any sense of the word, a political 
question. 
To any one interested in this subject I would commend 
the Reports of the Local Government Board and the Board of 
Agriculture and Fisheries for 1906, as also the Report of the 
Select Committee mentioned above. A perusal of these will, 
I think, satisfy the reader that I have not in any way overstated 
the “ faking ” that takes place in butter factories, and the 
general demoralisation of that particular trade. 
With the good market for milk that there is in England, 
butter-making cannot be profitable unless a price corresponding 
to the value of the milk is obtained for the butter, but that is 
no reason why the good and genuine produce from our own 
Colonies should be intercepted before reaching the public, or 
why a trade which flourishes on these shady practices should 
be allowed full latitude to carry on its doubtful business. 
Little Shardeloes, 
Amersham. 
Ernest Mathews. 
