The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-28

the dairy business by making butter a process which compels the farmer to either throw away or feed to his hogs | two-t thirds of the food value of hts milk If he feeds his skim-milk to his hogs he realizes less in pork than one-fifth of it's | value as human food.
 Yet, suppose one of these creameries | should determine to change from these wasteful methods to the economical | methods of producing margarin It would have to pay s6o0 a year license for the privilege of churning our oils anu
 milk together. It would have to give s5000 bond to the internal revenue depart- ment
 The oils from different seeds, soils and climate vary in their shades of yellow just the butter fat from different COWS and feeds vary in their shades of yell low. maker of butter may use arti- ficial coloring in order to produce a food of beautiful and uniform appear ance, but if he churns peanut and cotton seed oils and uses artificial cooring for the same purpose he must pay 10 cents per round on the product If he is Will ing to make mottled goods for consum- CTS, he must still pay one-fourth of cent per pound.
 The wholesaler who handles butter is not bothered with licenses and other rev. enue restrictions, but the wholesaler wno handles margarin, if it be colored to please the taste and eye of the consumer, must pay S400 year revenue licenses; or if he handles uncolored or mottled goods, he must pay s2o0 a year. The man who retails his margarin must pay s4S a year if 1t is colored and S6 a year If it is uncolored.
 All must endure the constant annoy ances and incur the constant risks in- volved in the internal revenue reguia- tions.
 In urging the butter makers of the north to stand by the present drastic oleomargarine laws, the Northwest
 Dairyman, Northfield, Minn., truly says:
 The licenses required from wholesalers and retailers makes 1t an undesirable business to go into."A But the annoy ances do not stop here. If your hotels or restaurants should desire to serve guests with clean, wholesome United States inspected oleomargarlne made from Alabama's own delightful food oils, rather than serve them neutralized and deodorised butter from the great central
 izers of the middle west, then they must
 post opposite each table where this food
 is supposed to be served, white placard
 14 by 16 inches, with nothing printed
 there on except in large black type,
 .Oleomargarine Served Here.
 Now, what hotel restaurant would submit to having Dig placafds apout any
 kind of food glaring al the customer across every table?
 The result is that the hotel and res taurant market for what should be ono of Alabama's main food products is ab- solutely destroyed; and the dairymen who do not like near enough the large cities are deprived altogether of market for their milk or are compelled to market one third of it's value through the few butter factories operated in the state, and practically throw away two thirds of it's value. If these few creameries in Alabama were converted into margarin factories they could with but small ad- ditional equipment produce two to ten times their present output of table food and give their farmer friends from To cents to sl additional per 100 pounds for their milk. This would be splendid stimulus to the dairy industry and en- large the market for our delicious food oils
 Last year. when the army camp at Anniston advertised for 20.000 pounds of oleomargarine, poor Alabama stood bound hand and foot by these unjust laws and was compelled to see her oils shipped to northern factories, churned into northern milk and shipped back to the camp.
 Yours truly,
 JOHN r. ASHCRAFT.
 Florence october 24, 1918.