The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-02-25

USED injurious
Very truly yours,
o. H. CULVER.
STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT
STATION.
Pullman, Wash, Feb. Is, 1905
Mr.. 0. HI. CULVER,
Friday Harbor, Wash.
My DEAR SIR
lam much interested in your letter
of February Sth, and in the article
found on the first page of your valu-
able paper of February 11th., relat-
ing to the manufacture of butter
through the agency of chemicals.
Permit me to state that it is quite
interesting to note that this ancient
fraud of inducing the farmers to
manufacture butter by means OF
illegitimate processes has again bob.
bed up in our state. We were begin
ming to hope that our farmers were
becoming so enlightened that they
could not be deceived into thinking
that it was possible to make butter
out of anything else than butter fat.
The facts of the case are that this
particular process, which varies in
it's character only slightly from SINH
lar schemes which have been ad-
vanced for many years, is still a
fraud of the rankest kind. It has so
been considered by all authorities in
dairy practice and has the stamp of
disapproval from the general govern
ment. In 1893 there was issued as
Farmers Bulletin No. II, an expose
of this scheme under the name of
"Nostrums. For Producing Butter. "
Answering your specific questions
[ would say that the use of sugar of
milk, pepsin, alum, and saltpeter and
any similar substances in cream, in
the process of churning, is viola
tion of the dairy food law of this
state, and if used by any process
of manufac turing butter which was
to be sold on the market would inn
make the manufacturer
liable to the state law covering this
subject. In the second place, the
use of these ingredients, particularly
the alum and saltpeter, is injurious
to the public health The Dairy and
Food Commission has been waging
war on these products and would,
doubt, attack any product
so manufactured and exposed for
sale.
1t might not be out of place in
connection with these statements to
explain that butter manufactured by
the aid of these ingredients is not
really butter. Of course there is
the usual amount of butter fat which
the cream would contain but in addi-
ton to this, there is an accumulation
Of broken down casein which, while
it does not add materially to the
weight of the butter, it does add bulk.
But as it has a great affinity for
water the total quantity of water
which the butter can be made to
contain is much greater than in the
ordinary process of butter making.
Consequently, we will have a butter,
which, while it contains the usual
amount of fat, BUT NO MORE, con-
tains also a large quantity of broken
down casein, and an excessive amount
of water, besides the residuum of the
alum, saltpeter, and other subst tances
that may have been used in the
process.
This same fraud was exposed two
years ago by the writer after bitter
controversy with the proprietors of
a similar so called patent | have no
doubt that considerable sum of
money would be Forthcoming as a |
bribe if endorsement could have been
secured for the process, as every
effort was made to secure such en-
dorsement. The scheme has been
advocated in every part of the land,
and | think you are doing your read
ers a great service in endeavoring
to show it up in it's true light. The
Bulletin known as Farmers Bulletin
No. II, to which reference was made.
is unfortunately out OF print at the
present time, but it is possible that
copies of it could be obtained by
addressing the Department of Agri-
culture, at Washington, D. G. The
subject was considered of such inn
portance at the time the Bulletin
was issued that it was one of the
first of this valuable series to be
published.