The Minneapolis journal., 1901-05-25
faster FOR THE PUBLIC
Minnesota Dairy and Food Department Serves
in That Capacity---Eiow It Stands Between
the People and Fraud.

Tor tfaVellng expenses ana Samples.
Chemist Is Stalled.
The liquor inspection, required by the
new Daugherty law, is an expensive af-
fair. In the first place, the chemist has
to have a full pint sample in order 10
make the proper test. There is now IN
the strong box SIS worth of whisky
samples, still sealed, and as the inspec-
tors all have excellent regulations for
sobriety, the bottles are quite safe. The
analysis of liquor is a slow and expensive
process and the samples have not been
touched yet. The chemist is trying to
get hold of some more rapid and less ex-
pensiye process. The samples are mostly
taken from saloons in the iron range
country, where the cheapest and Vilest
sorts of liquid poison are dealt out to
the miners, and very little real whisky
is sold. The law prohibits the manufac-
ture and sale of spirituous, fermented or
malt liquors containing any drug sub
stance or ingredient not normal or health
full, and just TO give an idea of the sort
of stuff found in cheap liquors the fol-
lowing catalogue is reproduced from the
language of the law:
What Is Found in Cheap Liquor.
Cocculues indicus, chloride of sodium, cop
peras opium, cayenne pepper, picric acid,
Indian hemp, strychnine, arsenic, tobacco,
darnel seed, extract of logwood. salts Of zinc,
copper or lead, alum, methyl alcohol and its
derivatives, amyl alcohol and any extract
or compound of any of the above drugs, sub
stances or ingredients.
With stuff of the above sort going into
mems systems, it is small wonder that
a complaint went up from Senator Daugh-
erty's bailiwick. The greed of these un-
rrincipled poisoners has over-reached it
self.
All Practical Dairymen.
The law allows only So, 900 a year for
the enforcement of the pure food laws.
The rest goes into dairy inspection. The
department devotes the most of its ener-
gieS to seeing to the purity of milk,
cream, butter and cheese, and to keeping
the Minnesota standard Of such products
up 10 the proper mark. The deputy in
spectors are all practical dairy and butter
men, capable of giving advice to even
expert managers of dairies and creamer-
les. The collection of pure food samples
is merely side issue, and requires no
particular experience except a knowledge
of standard brands. The real work in this
department is done by the chemist, with
his test tube, graduate and blow pipe.
In the testing of milk and cream each
deputy inspector is himself a chemist on
small scale.
Very little impure or poor milk and
cream reaches the consumer. The dep
uty inspector keeps an eagle eye on the
states product at every stage, from the
"bossy COW" and her barn to the milk in
the wagon on the streets of the city.
The first duty is the inspection Of the
herd. Every dairy herd in the state gets
a visit at least once year. II the in
spector finds everything clean and neat,
he does not come again. If conditions
are not quite satisfactory, he points out
what is wrong, and notifies headquarters.
The chief inspector drops line to the
dairyman, advising him to brace up in
the particular where he falls short, and
in few weeks the inspector calls againA
There has to be a very decided improve
ment in conditions. or the owner is
brought up with a round turn. Dairy
men have acquired a wholesome respect
for the department., and are not, as
rule, hard to manage. In the early days
of the department, inspectors were or
dered off the premises and insulted Many
dairymen thought it was none of the
states business, but that is all changed
now.
Creameries also come within the pur-
vnew Of the inspectors, who make minute
examinations of the machinery and pro-
cesses, and often make helpful sugges-
tions Defective drainage and lack or
neatness always calls for reproof and II
persisted in. result in arrests.
SampIing the Milk.
large share of the inspectors time is
spent sampling and testing milk and
cream. The milkman never knows where
or when to look for the man with the
little satchell, and tries always to be
ready for his coming. 1t is well for him
to be cautious, for in an hour that he
wots not of, the inspector may get
sample Of skim milk sold for the pure
article, and for this little saving the milk
man mustpay $50.
An inspector meets every milk train,
and samples each can thereon, taking the
dairyman's name off the tag. He stops
milk wagons on the street and sticks his
little dipper into the cans, filling bottle
for future reference. He buys sample bot
ties in groceries and creameries, and puts
them in his little satchel
Half the milk inspectors time is spent
in the laboratory testing samples. He
keeps an accurate record of each one,
with name and date. First he takes the
temperature and specific gravity of each
sample. At 60 degrees the milk must show
a specific gravity of %. If it is warmer, the
test will show a lower figure. But at
that heat, there Is something wrong II
the little floating tube shows less than
%. From 80 to go is the record usually
made by good quality of milk.
The Crucial Test.
Most important Is the Babcock test,
which shows the per cent Of butter fat.
1t is made with a small glass bulb, the
neck of which is graduated. The In
spector pours a small quantity Of the
sample into the bulb, and with it an
equal amount of sulphuric acid. The acid
breaks up the milk, combining with all
but the butter fat, which floats on top, and
the index shows just how much there is
of it. The law requires 35 per cent, and
if the sample shows less than that, the
dairy or milk wagon from which it is
taken falls under suspicion. The in
spector gets another sample as soon as he
can. and if it, too, runs below, trouble is
likely to follow. In the case of milk
shipped in, the inspector. has to go to the
station where the cans are loaded and
take his samples again as they are
brought in This is because the dairyman
must be prosecuted in his own county,
and the evidence must be secured there.
Inspectors have to exercise their judg-
ment Indiscriminate arrests would be
persecution Those who fall short are
notified, and given chance to brace up
before they are arrested. In the early
spring. between hay and grass" milk
runs thin, and dairymen are allowed some
latitude.
Easy to Find Preservatives.
Cream is required to show 20 per cent
of fat. and is tested in the same way, ex-
cept that less acid is used. Preservatives