The Portland daily press., 1868-12-25
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Friday Morning, December 25, 1863.
PORTLAND.
Tbou sba,, Ne, Commit Adal,,.,,..-

sold in our city. The higher the price the
more inducement to adulterate. Now if any
of our grocers trade with the New York gro
GERS they may be cheated and consequently
they will cheat their customers. The World
not only pounces upon adulterations, but al
SO upon short weight. The latter is a griey-
ance, but it does not poison the stomach
We may be thankful for that.
The adulteIation of food in N. Y. city has
become regularly systematized. There are
large establishments where adulterants are
prepared and sold in large quantities. A very
common adulterant used in coffee and pep
per is ground shipbread. Large quantities of
old bread is thus used. When a vessel ar
rves from long voyage, buyers of this stuff
come on board and purchase what is left,
grind it and sell it to grocers who know ex-
actly how to use IL. We all know about
chickory, but this has become so expensive
that they are beginning to adulterate it with
cheaper materials. The London Quarterly
Review uses the following language on this
subject: "To such pitch of refinement has
the art of fabrication of elementary substances
reached that the very articles used to adulter
ate are themselves aduterated and while one
tradesman is picking the pockets of his Gus
toners, still more cunning rogue is, un-
known to himself, deep in his own," In this
case the: devil takes the hndmost. But food
is not alone adulterated. The fraud is car
ried into almost every article taken into the
stomach. Drugs and medicines are adulter-
ated; so also are snuff and tobacco and now
it is pretty gene rally known that fermented
and distilled liquors are anything but pure
But we don't care so much about this, for iD-
toxicating liquors and tobacco ale poisonous
enough in and of themselves, in their best
state. Confectionery is adulteTated with
earthly matter aud often, colored with poi
| sons.
Tea drinkers may ask how their iavorite
beverage is adulterated.
The adulterants are exhausted tea leaves
| elm, beech, horse-chestnut leaves, plane,
fancy oak, willow, poplar, hawthorne and
| slow, starch, rice husks, excrement of silk
worms and sand. For coloring the tea are
used rose pink, Dutch pink, vegetable red and
| yellow dyes, chrome yellow, Venetian red,
| Prussian blue, sulphate Of lime, verdigris,
carbonate of copper, arsenite OF copper, chro-
of magnesia, black lead, soap-stone, log
wood, indigo and tumeric. For the taste
catechu and sulphate of iron are used. Az
| the above ingredients have been found in tea
| 1t seems to us such mess could not be very
| agreeable to the palate nor very nutritious tc
the stomach.
Coffee is adulterated with quite as man,
articles, which we have not space to enumer
ate. For the color, burnt sugar, no adder root
roasted horse Euer and burnt blood have beer
used. Spices, -four, chocolate, sugar, vinegar
lard, mustard, sauces, pickles, cream tartar
and so on, are adulterated.
Now we are come to milk and here we are
more at home and can speak by the card
We should like to know, as a matter of curl
osity, how much milk, pure from the COW, i:
sold in our market. We speak the truth and
hope we "shame the devip' when we say We
have never been fortunate enough to pur
chase such milk, at least if we have the cows
in this region give very poor milk, and we
advise our dairymen to swap them off as
soon as possible and supply their places with
others. 1t is lamentable fact that we have
never been able to raise on our purchased
milk body of cream thicker than an egg
shell, and often not so thick as that. Now il
the cows are good, we have always been
cheated, and we dare say almost every body
else has been. 1t is a sin aid a shame thai
so much diluted milk is sold in our market
The price, eight cents quart, is large enough
to bring pure milk, and men who will play
such fantastic tricks before high heaven are
not exactly what they should be, and some
day their sins will find them out.
The Country Gentleman has an article up
on the difference between city milk and
country milk-the milk of the kline and the
milk of the cans. These two kinds are no
similar articles by t,oo chalks at least, ant
that has long been matter of general belief
Cincinnati is public spirited city and has
some claims to wisdom. There they have q
"City Milk Inspector" who asserts two i'm
portant facts in his report-one of simple di
luton, the other of simple filthiness in the
manufacture. The milk there sold is full!
tsoenty ive per cent soater on an average, anC
some of it more than one halt. The
amount paid annually for this mixture is
$157S.SOO. The measure OF filthiness in the
manufacture can only be conceived by read
ing the account of the filth stables in which
cows are fed ou hot distillery slop from Octo
ber TO March or April when they are slaught
cred. These poor creatures lie in manure
most of the time and breathe the same all
| over and over again.
Now we ought to be thankful that moi
many cows are kept in this manner in onl
vicinity. But we can equal that city in water
privileges. True, we have not the Ohio rivel
running by our doors, but then we have the
Presumpscot, and Sebago water will soon b
in our city. We can show as much water il
our milk as they can, and perhaps more
We challenge them to beat US on the dilutint
process. We can procure chalk, too, as read
| ents