Not many years ago the inspection of dairy products, particularly control of the traffic in oleomargarine, was the chief function of this office. To-day the enforcement of laws concerning pure foods, liquor and drugs is of much greater importance.
Interstate commerce in oleomargarine is now regulated through the enactment of an internal revenue law requiring a tax of ten cents a pound on colored oleomargarine and one-fourth of a cent a pound on uncolored oleomargarine and, further, by prescribing the character of package and method of marking all oleomargarine entering into interstate commerce. State agencies are charged with the duty of requiring the compliance of local dealers and restaurateurs with the general features of the federal law. Some states, however, prohibit entirely the sale of colored oleomargarine within the state.
PURITY IN DAIRY PRODUCTS
Attempts to define what is pure milk, cream, butter or cheese have been fraught with much difficulty. Thus, for example, legal definitions of pure milk have resulted in some cows giving illegal milk. In some instances the law has declared simply that whole milk is milk from which no cream has been removed; in others, the minimum amount of butter fat has been prescribed; in still others, the minimum amount of total solids containing a minimum proportion of butter fat has been made the basis of legal milk. In like manner full cream cheese has been defined as cheese made from whole milk or from milk from which only a given amount of cream has been removed, while in other instances the minimum amount of butter fat which full cream cheese may contain is prescribed. The wide variation in the amount of butter fat carried by cream has caused much jocular comment and some serious discussion as to what is cream.
While it is not feasible to indicate the laws for the several states, the ruling of the federal government as to what constitutes purity in dairy products under the national food and drug act may be accepted as a general guide. A circular giving the required information may be secured by addressing the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
LIVE STOCK SANITATION
The control of contagious diseases in domestic animals and the inspection of meat products have been the chief work of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture since its establishment.
The bureau inspects all imported live animals and under certain conditions will inspect live animals intended for exportation. It inspects all meat products intended for export. Its inspection of meats intended for interstate commerce is less rigid than that exported. Meats sold within the state in which they are slaughtered cannot be required by the federal government to undergo inspection. It thus happens that the people of the several states enjoy less protection in the consumption of meat than the foreign purchaser of American meats unless there is a state meat inspection law. However, it is becoming more and more the custom for the large packers to have all their products inspected without regard to their destination. The meats slaughtered in the locality in which they are consumed are the ones that receive the least supervision.
The federal government has been especially active and efficient in the prevention of interstate commerce in cattle suffering with Texas fever, and sheep attacked with scab and foot rot. Through the agency of the bureau dipping tanks have been provided in all the great live stock markets for the disinfection of cattle and sheep when needed.
Several of the states have laws controlling the importation of diseased animals from other states and the transfer of them within the state. The following are the diseases most commonly mentioned in the laws of the several states: Anthrax, black quarter, hog cholera, swine plague, rabies, glanders and tuberculosis. The law is generally enforced by a state veterinarian, whose acts are supervised either by a state live stock commission or the state secretary of agriculture or these two agencies acting conjointly.