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Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 5

but in many instances it is so skilfully done^ that only chemical analysis can detect the fraud, But the adulteration of food with the deleterious substances is, perhaps, -not so serious a matter as dishonest trade marts. Anyone discovered adulterating food with anything likely to be dangerous to health will be punished by law upon deflection ; but there is no law against misleading* trade marks. For instance, potato starch is manufactured into a variety of products which, under some fanciful name, are freely sold as food for infants. Mothers, perfectly innocent of the wiles of trade, use tliese products, fully believing them to be what they are represented to be; and when, as sometimes happens, at an inquest on the death of a child the fond mother is told that it has died of starvation she feels a deeply-in-jured woman. If Parliament had the best interests of the community at heart, it would compel vendors of all such infant foods to have printed upon the wrapper the fact that"' the basis of the article is potato or other starch, and to state the percentage of, say, albuminoids in any patented brand of infants' food. This is a matter of importance to farmers, as well as to the whole community, since preparations of potato starch are being falsely sold as the product of wholesome com.

!And when we come to dairy proQuce we find that the laxity of the laws reBigorons lating to food adulteration Inspection at Home is such that there is' Wanted. no special inducement to pro-

duce pure articles. Not long ago the Board of Agriculture had an analysis of foreign butter^made at the port of landing, and the community were surprised at the kind .and quality of the adulteration resorted to. Conimenting upon these matters an agricultural journal of high standing says : Adultera.tion'naturally falls under two heads: — (1) The importation. of adulterated food ; (2) the falsi(fication of local food products. "Offenders * under both of these categories," the journal continues, " should be^penalised with equal severity. "Unfortunately, the law at the present time does not hit straight from the shoulder. If is very unconvincing and unreal. The hapless retailer who sells his butter not up to the required standard, although he purchased it, on the understanding that it conformed to the law, is made the butt of ruthless injustice. The importer and the consignor escape from the vengeance of the law, while (wittingly or unwittingly) placing an inferior article on the market." Although the analysis referred to showed the inferior quality of Dutch, German, and Danish butter, no prosecutions followed, the 'importers excusing themselves on the plea that the milk was always poorer at that season of the year. Consequently the Government officials did not prosecute the importer. "Oh, no!" the journal says, "the law does not allow that ; but w ith a fine touch of feline cunning the law must wait until the middleman mouse jump!-." According to the same authority the Adulteration Acts are little short of a laughing stock to the community. The adulteration taken most serious objection to is the addition -of preservative to butter., The British farmer is quite right in attempting to create a prejudice against foreign adulterated butter, which lie finds entering into keen competition with his own products. \Ve can conscientiously back him up, for there is no valid reason for adding any adulterant to good butter. Factory butter, such"- as our best factories turn out. can be placed in the freezing chamber or cool store in prime condition, and will carry Home with its flavour, etc., unaltered if kept at ah approved temperature. It will then take its place along with the bes«t Homo article, and that without the aid of any preservative. Canadian dairymen have made the production of pure unadulterated butter a national question ; and we cannot do better than follow Canada's lead. If once the consuming public come to know that pur butter is what its trade mark represents it to bo it will be accorded a preference over Danish, Dutch, or any other that has boracic acid added to it to help its keeping qualities. The Home authorities should insist upon the most rigorous inspection of dairy produce especially and penalise adulteration of all kinds.

Dairy farmers and cattle-breeders in the old

count) y teem to be in a great Tuberculosis, state of unrest about the in-

tentiens of the British government with regard to diseased cattle. There seems to be no likelihood of compenßa"iion being given by the State for condemned cattle, but plenty of good advice is given gratis to all who apply for it. In answer to a question in the House of Commons, Mr Long, Minister for Agriculture, is reported to have said that it was not the intention of the Government to introduce a bill for the appointment of inspectors all over the country an connection with tuberculosis. The Corporation of Leeds, in Yorkshire, has taken the matter up, and proposes to introduce a bill containing clauses empowering the appointment of inspectors, who shall inspect, test, and examine all the cows which supply milk to the city of Leeds, whether these 2ows are kept within or without the city boundaries. There is great >pposition to these clauses affecting dairy farms outside •the control of the Leeds Corporation, because there are severe penalties to be imposed in the case of convictions for idling milk from diseased cows, and the farmers in the neighbourhood of Leeds do not see why they should be subject to inspection and fines snore than the rest of Great Britain. As the State is not moving in the matter, the Boyal Agricultural Society has issued leaflet*

giving useful suggestions and information re detecting tuberculosis.

A large British dairy fanner says that it is . folly to unnecessarily alarm A Dairy milk drinkers about the danFarnier's gers of tuberculosis. The Views, usual seat of the disease is in • the lungs, and the milk of a cow thus affected may be, he says, perfectly wholesome. It, is ,only when the udder is affected that the tuberculous germs may be conveyed to human beings using the milk. He says, however, that it is very rarely that this disease appears in the udder, and when it does set in there a cow soon loses her yield, and is, therefore, not worth milking. This is not very satisfactory to consumers, as v such milk may~be taken round for a long time before the,-yield falls off enough to cause . the cow to "be 1 dried off. It is a horiad thing to contemplate, and it should be very satisfactory to all milk buyers in this colony to know that qualified men are on the lookout for diseased cattle, whether for milk or beef • production. Then, again, there is dissatisfaction at Home with the manner in which inspection is carried out, and also with the uncertainty in connection with the good quality of the tuberculin used. Dairy farmers say that perfectly sound cattle have reacted to the test and been slaughtered. That is a serious matter, if it is the case, but I doubt if it is of more than very rare occurrence. Now that all dairies in this country are to be* thoroughly inspected, there is some chance of the disease being stamped out, but it appears that those chiefly interested in the matter at Home take a very gloomy view of the prospect of such a consummation there.

The common house sparrow, whose scientific appellation I have affixed to Passer the margin, is, perhaps, one Douiesticus. ,of the best known birds in the

world. As to its geographical distribution it is übiquitous, being found pretty well wherever man, especially civilised man, is found, from the equator to the polar circles. And as for its antiquity we have the authority of a German illustrated Bible, printed at the beginning of the seventeenth century, for saying that the sparrow was one of the birds that Noah took with him into the Ark. The said Bible is adorned with a magnificent picture of "Noah and his family shipping the celebrated cargo of live stock on a memorable occasion, and among them prominenco is given to the sparrow. He is all there (with his wife) on the back of a cow, apparently in the very best of spirits, despite the sad occasion and the gloomy appearance of the _ heavQßs> the windows of which (on iron chains worked by pulleys) are being opened by btalwart angela to let the waters out." But the sparrow antedates the Flood, no doubt, and is one of the familiar birds of the Bible. It is said that certain Americans sighed for the v.oll-remembered sight of the sparrow of their childhood's days in their English home, and had a few sent to them by friends. Even tho illimitable bounds of that continent which a brother Jonathan assured a Cockney friend was bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis and on the south by the Day of Judgment did not terrorise the cocky little sparrow. He took to the new land as to the manner born, and coon outdistanced all rivals, presenting himself to the astonished inhabitants from Cape Horn to Alaska. In the United States as in this country the sparrow ha^ been proclaimed a pest, and every known means haa been resorted to to circumvent his fecundity, but all in vain; passer domesticus laughs at poison and traps arid the small boy who harrows hip nest, and goes on his way rejoicing from Maine to Alaska, from the wooded Catskill Mountains and the shores of the stately Hudson to the orange groves of Florida. In the United Kingdom al=o the fight against the sparrow has become a Avar of extermination, as the feeling has gained ground jthat either the farmer or the sparrow must go down in the struggle for existence.

AGRICOLA.