The National tribune., 1882-10-26


| The wonder is, not that the Legislature of New
! York recently enacted law against food adul-
iteration, but that the people do not demand its
! enforcement. | suppose it is because they do
not yet know the extent to which they are
! being humbugged. Here is a field for some
entcrprising lecturer that it might pay to work !!
And talking of adulteration, do you know what
! 1t Is that gives the nutmeg its whitish, pOwdery
! appearance? 1t is the lime which the Dutch
dealers, i'll the islands where it is grown, put on
IN order to prevent imperfectiOns from being
detected in the nut. The Chinese, too, have
way of extracting the oil from the cinnamon
! stick and then palming it off as the genuine
article. 1t is bad enough to know that spices
arcdOctOrcd before they reach this country, with
out being confronted with all the interesting pos
s;biIities Of home adulteration. When things
| reach such pass that what was sold to a West
ern dealer the other day-as Mr.. Bennett Incl
dentally rcmarkcd-for a ton of pure mustard,
/ turned out, on being submitted to analysis, to
be innocent of all mustard whatever, it seems
to me high time for a swcet-tempered public to
inquire what it is buying!
LESSON IN FRENCH.
With Mr.. GodiIIot, the head of the French
department, also had delightful live-minutes'
chat. So far as I know he has never written
book of travels, but in those five minutes he told
me more real interesting factsabout France than
are to be found in all the works of American
tourists nut together. | asked him why it was
that France BOUGHT American canned tomatoes
aud corn, instead of raising those vegetables
herself, and he renIied that the farmers
could not afford to grow them. owing to
the HIGH price Of land Every foot is
utilized there How the Kansas readers
of TIE TeIRTrEE. for instance. would smile
at the sight of stone walls planted with
vegetables and flowers in order to utilize every
square foot Of surfacar Mr. GodilIot said the
AGRICULTURAL future Of France like that of most
continental countries WAS becoDinoe moro and
more mathematical There "a in England.
American wheat and America, beef were des-
tined 70 control the markets. ard the farmers
would be forced to still further diversity the
crops in order to make their land earn the
heavy rentals exacted from them As l was
running my eye over the beautiful display
of dried and canned fruit and vegetables
which constitutes one of the chief attractions
OF the house it occurred to me to ask where it
procured its mushrooms. and I was told that
they were all bought in. the Paris market, for
which they are grown in the numerous GUAR
Pies near the city. The temDerature of these
quarrics is very cquabIe. and therefore par
ticularly favorable TO the successful cuItfva-
ton OF the mushroom. 1t is at Bordeaux and
3Iarmande, in the south of France. that the
principal foreign factories of the house are
located. 1t is in the latter place that the prunes
for which the house is famous are packed. The
picking season. as | learned from Dir Godillot,
lasts but a week or ten days, but it requires
nearly three months to put up" or "put
down - personally prefer the latter-all the
fruit that is gathered in that time. 1 ought to
tell You something about the sardine fisheries
for some unknown reason there has been no
catch at all this fall-and the Spanish olive
house, but I should only whet your curiosity
still further.
AN INTERESTING DIRECTORY,
Let us stroll on through the canned goods
department. where Mr.. Alex. Wiley. surrounded
by pyramids Of raudjiv labelled tins * seIIino
a customers rousipr bill and peen in at The cigar
department. where they sell of one brand alone
l 100000 cigars month, and So make the cireuit
of the building. Every branch Of the business
has its sDcciaI representative. and tbe array of
samples is fairly bewildering. Here is the di- |
rectorv of the house;
Fruit Departfuent-R F. Brown
Tea DEPARTMENT. Martin GiIlet.
Coffee Observation-Disclosures Ashlin.
Sugar and Syrup Northumberland Win |
ston.
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