The McCook tribune., 1897-07-30
CWashipg gton Letter.)


"The man with his coat Off" is not
disturbed by hot weather. The roll
ing days in Washington have not
checked the activity OF that rugged
old worker, the head Of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, and he is pushing
along with his new plans for increas-
ing the earnings of the farmers, and at
the same time decreasing their hours
OF labor
Secretary Wilson has had numerous
inquiries as to the result of his trial
shipments of butter to England. He
has received reports from the second
shipment, and is Of the opinion that
hs is working upon the right line and
one which viii develop a largely in
creased Industry for the farmers of
this country. Speaking to your cor
respondent about this he said:
Our shipment of butter consisted
of various styles of packages, small,
half-pound prints, square boxes, large
tubs and other packages, and generally
arrived in good order The depart
nient has received letters frcm num-
Der of Englishmer, commission mer-
chants and others who used this but
ter and who generally speak of it in
high terms as regards its quality and
flavor, in comparison with the best
grade Of English butter. The only
criticism seems to be that the butter
generally is not dry enough to suit
them, but this is a point which can be
easily remedied. There is no doubt in
the world but that as soon as we "get
onto them" we can do business with
them, and ct profit. We have just
been having some tests here in New
York OF an interesting nature. We
have had experts examining samples
Of butter shipped from England, Ire
land, Denmark and Australia, and
competing with our own buffers ship
ped from the western and northwest
ern states. We met them half way.
In only one case, that of sample from
England, did the foreign butter come
up to the standard of the best Amer
lean butter. This is very encoura ging
to our butter makers and shows that
we make as good butter as is produced.
''It is perfectly logical" continued the
secretary, that if we send our grain
to Denmark to be fed to foreign cattle
to produce butter that we can feed it
to our own cattle and send abroad the
butter instead"
Another question which l am going
to soon take up said Mr. Wilson, lis
that of the foreign cheese market
Nothing has been done in this line as
yet, and | am not ready to offer any
American cheese abroad. We are not
now in a condition to sell cur cheese
abroad for the reason that the market
is full of the adulterated article. and
owing to the laXity of the internal rev.
.enue regulations it is almost impossi-
BILE to discover it. AS long as this
filed cheese is sold as pure cheese it
is impossible to establish a reputation
for good cheese. Filled cheese" ex-
planned the secretary, lis made in
this way: Milk is run through a sep
arator and all the fat taken out, at a
value OF perhaps Is or 90 cents per
pound For this is substituted cheap
cotton-seed oil, lard, etc, at cost of
only few cents pound. Cheese made
i'll this manner has poor keeping quail
tiles, will not ripen, and is of low
grade generally. The revenue laws
are constantly being violated and cir
cumvented with regard to the sale Of
this substitute for cheese which is
placed upon the market in large guam
titles as the genuine article. l have
been getting after Secretary Gage and