Bad Bacteria in Stable Manure. Bose Pear. 
Vol. LVIII. No. 2576 . NEW YORK, JUNE 10, 1899 . 
“/ WONDER WHAT’S IN IT!" 
ADULTERATED AND POISONED FOOD. 
Frauds That Live on the Farm. 
We sat at a table delightfully spread, 
And teeming with good th’ngs to eat, 
And daintily fingered the cream-tinted bread, 
Just needing to make it complete 
A film of the butter so yellow and sweet, 
Well suited to make every minute 
A dream of delight, and yet while we eat 
We cannot help asking “ What’s in it ? ” 
Oh, maybe this bread contains alum and chalk, 
Or sawdust chopped up very fine, 
Or gypsum in powder, about which they talk, 
Terra alba just out of the mine. 
And our faith in its butter is apt to be weak, 
For we haven’t a good place to pin it, 
Annatto’s so yellow and beef fat so sleek, 
Oh, I wish I could know what is in it! 
Ah! be certain you know what is in it, 
'Tls a question in place every minute. 
Oh! how happy I’d be could I only see 
With certainty all that is in it. 
The pepper, perhaps, contains 
cocoanut shells. 
And the mustard is cotton¬ 
seed meal. 
The coffee, in sooth, of baked 
chicory smells, 
And the terrapin tastes like 
roast veal. 
The wine which you drink 
never heard of a grape, 
But of tannin and coal tar is 
made, 
And you could not be certain, 
except by their shape, 
That the eggs by a chicken 
were laid. 
And the salad which bears 
such an innocent look 
And whispers of fields that 
are green, 
Is covered with germs, each 
armed with a hook 
To grapple with liver and 
spleen. 
No matter how tired and 
hungry and dry; 
The banquet how fine; don’t 
begin it 
Till you think of the past and 
the future, and sigh, 
Oh, I wonder,I wonder what’s 
in it! 
Ah: be certain you know what 
is in it, 
’Tis a question in place every 
minute. • 
Oh! how happy I’d be could I 
only see 
With certainty all that is 
in it. 
Frauds on Farmers. 
—Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the 
United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, read 
these verses in his address 
before the New Jersey 
Board of Agriculture last 
Winter. We may well put them by the side of our 
hrst-page picture. We wish that all who buy manu¬ 
factured or prepared food would commit them to 
memory, and sing them as they sing America or 
Home, Sweet Home. Once let the American people 
begin seriously to ask, What’s In It ? and the enter¬ 
prising firm of A. Devil & Co., will lose, at least a 
share of their business. The picture shows the senior 
member of this firm at work. He has no use for the 
farmer with his honest and clean products, while, 
with his cheap trash and poisons, he can make up in¬ 
ferior and nasty substitutes, and peddle them out at 
high prices. 
There is small chance for the cow, the pig or the 
sheep when this old rascal can handle and sell oleo¬ 
margarine, shoddy and vile fats under the names of 
butter, all-wool cloth and lard. It may be a smart 
business to melt up odds and ends of beef carcasses, 
and put the mess into cans labeled, “ Roast Beef ”, 
but it is a vile trick on the consumer, and robbery of 
the farmer. In fact the business of A. Devil & Co. is 
harder on the farmer than on any other clasp. Dr. 
Wiley says that fully 90 per cent of the manufactured 
food and drink prepared in this country will be found 
to be adulterated. He means by this the articles sold 
in packages under trade-marks. We all understand 
how butter and cheese have been adulterated. Maple 
syrup and honey are largely mixed with glucose—the 
glucose is not mixed with the honey ! Cotton-seed 
oil is sold as olive oil. So-called coffee berries have 
been analyzed, which contained nothing but molasses, 
sugar and rye flour molded to imitate the berry. Corn 
oil is used for linseed. Ground peanut shells and even 
sawdust are used for mixing with ground spices. One 
of the worst frauds is to be found in so-called pre¬ 
serves and jellies. Out of 121 samples analyzed by 
the Connecticut Station, 88 were adulterated. Com¬ 
binations of starch-paste, glucose, coal-tar dyes and 
salicylic acid were sold as “raspberry”, “currant”, 
“ apple ” or “ quince ”, and the manufacturers added 
insult to injury by adding the word “ Pure” in large 
letters. Sausage, mince meat and boneless codfish 
contained borax or salicylic acid. 
“Bulk” and Poisons. —Many of the adultera¬ 
tions used in dry foods are harmless to health. Saw¬ 
dust, oat chaff, peanut shells, plaster and white earth 
may not kill people, though they were not intended 
for human consumption. They do injure the farmer’s 
business, for every pound means the loss of a pound 
of honest food that the farmer ought to provide at a 
fair price. This matter of adulteration has been car¬ 
ried so far that we believe it to be the most powerful 
factor that operates to keep prices for farm products 
down. Drive out the thousands of tons of trash and 
worthless substitutes that are palmed eff on the pub¬ 
lic in packages of prepared food, and there would be 
an immense increase in the demand for what ihe 
farmer actually produces. There is no surer or easier 
way to increase the demand for pure and wholesome 
food than to roast A Devil & Co. out of this devilish 
business—for no softer or gentler word will answer. 
It is mean enough to sell sawdust, hay, shells or 
other “ bulk”, but it is criminal to use poisons, as is 
now generally done with canned goods. The worst 
feature of it is that the manufacturers and handlers 
will often go on the stand, and swear that they never 
use borax or salicylic acid in their goods. Chemical 
tests for these substances are accurate and exact. It 
is proved beyond all question that these poisons are 
used in many brands of canned goods, such as oysters, 
baked beans, soups, fruits, fish and certain meats. It 
does seem as though the men who use these poisons 
and adulterants uncon¬ 
sciously use substitutes 
for honesty in the make¬ 
up of their conscience. 
Some of the disclosures 
made by chemists are 
shocking “Canned Vile- 
ness” is a very polite 
name for such stuff as A. 
D„vil & Co. have been 
preparing for the Ameri¬ 
can people. 
The Way Out.—What 
is to be done about it ? 
The farmer suffers less 
in one way than the 
townsman, because he 
knows that much of his 
food is pure. As we have 
said, his loss is largely a 
loss of trade. When A. 
Devil & Co. can take ap¬ 
ple cores and parings 
and mix them with 
starch, poisonous dyes 
and salicylic acid, and 
sell this mixture for 
“ Pure. Apple Sauce” the 
farmer may as well let 
his apple trees alone It 
will not pay him to buy 
Paris green or Boideaux 
Mixture. It isn’t a ques¬ 
tion of “ I wonder what’s 
in it”, for he knows full 
well that he isn’t “ in it ” 
at all. The American 
farmer must put a stop to 
this horrible practice, or 
he will lose more and 
more of his legitimate trade. The Texas Farm and 
Ranch puts the matter well when it says: “This 
country has been notoriously weak in laws for the 
protection of the people against fraud in foods. The 
1 personal liberty ’ theory has been worked largely in 
the interest of frauds. ‘ Let people eat and drink 
what they please. Out upon sumptuary laws ! ’ and 
the like, has been drummed into our ears from the 
stump, and has confronted us in political hand-organs, 
to whose music political simians have danced. Gov¬ 
ernment was ordained by the American people for 
the purpose of doing all needful things which the 
people cannot do for themselves. The people cannot 
protect themselves against fraud in food products, 
and a government that either cannot or will not pro¬ 
tect them is either contemptibly weak or else it is 
