Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1900-03-08
Dairy Notes.

Would it not pay the dairy assocla-
tons to give special instruction in the
analysis of butter and oleomargarine
that the two may be distinguished
apart as we'll on the farm and in the
village as at the experiment station?
If we could have in every town and
city some person enough interested in
pure food to make a study of analysis
we might be able to check the con-
slant imposture in foods. A great
many people that now buy oleomar-
garine would not buy it If they knew
it. The easiest way to check the fraud,
at least the most effective way, is to
give the people some way of finding
out what the true article is and what
the bogus article is. We need great
er acquaintance with chemistry. 1t
was largely fancy study once; it is
an essential study now. 1t is surpris-
ing that our leaders in dairy educa-
ton know so little about the methods
of analysis, except those men that
make a business Of it.
Some reports from England say that
recent tests with tuberculin indicate
that the cows that are most likely to
take the disease from other COWS are
those that are kept in sheds and barns
from one years end to another, ana
the freest cows are those that are
permitted to stay most of the time IN
pastures. This is in accordance with
all experience with tuberculosis. The
tubercle germ is taken into the lungs
through the nostrils and these germs
to be breathed must be dry and float
ing in the air. The sputa from tuber-
culous cows has chance to dry when
other COWS breathe it. But when the
cattle are kept in the pastures the
sputa is not likely to become dry
enough to float in the air. If it be
eaten it is more than likely to be
thrown off by the digestive organs.
While it is true that stomachs may
become infested, it is also true that
they are not so likely to become affect
ed as the lungs. 1t was also found
that the cattle kept in open sheds suf-
fered from tuberculosis quite largely.
The same conditions apply here as in
the barns. The germs have chance
to dry and float in the air. This proves
that it is wise thing to give the cows
as much out of doors life as possible.
We need in this country some addi-
ton to our dairy laws in the form OF
the establishment of a legal limit to
the amount of water that butter may
contain. We hear of ladle goods COM
ing to market with so much water in
corporated in them that some of it
soaks out even before the butter has
left the hands of the commission men.
This water is evidently not put in by
the farmers that made the butter in
the first place. Ladle goods are made
from butter that is collected here and
there by owners of factories. 1t is re-
worked and recolored to give it uni
formity. 1t differs from process but
ter in that it is not necessarily bad
butter at any time. It may all have
been good fresh butter at the time of
coming into the hands of the factory
man, and is revoked to give it uni
formity. The factory man has found
that water can be incorporated in con-
siderable quantities, and brings him a
good price per pound. 1t is dishonest
trick, but we fear that it is practiced
far more commonly than is known.
Butter will hold great deal of water
without permitting it to soak out, and
when it contains so much that it liter
ally runs out it looks as if the greed
of the reworker has got beyond con-
troll. In England and ireland, and we
suppose in the other countries COM
prising the British Isles, the laws are
very rigid in this matter, and we see
frequently reports of prosecutions for
their violation.