Report of Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commissioner


Function of the Department
The first Dairy and Food Commissioner set forth with notable clear-
ness and precision the service which it is the function of the Dairy
and Food Commission to render Wisconsin citizens:
"The sole object of the department is to insure to the buyer exactly
what he wants, and asks and pays for, thus protecting his pocket
book and his health and at the same time placing the manufacturers
of spurious goods in such a position that they are unable to displace
honest goods by misrepresentation.  * * We find that adultera-
tion of many of our food products results in cheapening the product
of the farm, thus lessening the profits of the husbandman and rob-
bing both consumer and producer. The great evil lies in the practice
of selling a cheapened article under a false name, at the same price
of the pure article, thus defrauding the producer out of the price
which he might have received for the genuine product, while at the
same time the consumer is made to pay for what he does not ask
and what he does not want."
This form of adulteration is one of the most atrocious offenses
against both producers and consumers of genuine foods and honest
dealers as well.
Wisconsin the Leading Dairy State
That Wisconsin is the leading dairy state in the Union whose dairy
products in 1923 aggregated $247,215,452, that the high quality of her
dairy products has been so outstanding that she has outstripped all
other states in volume, is due in no small measure to the service of
the Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commission and its championship
of high quality.
The following tabulation comprises a summary of the most au-
thentic statistics of the Wisconsin dairy industry for the calendar
year 1923, acquired by this department pursuant to law, and makes
apparent the immensity of the Wisconsin dairy industry that has
reached such gigantic proportions from a very feeble infancy at the
time the office of Dairy and Food Commissioner was established.
Wisconsin Dairy Statistics for the Calendar Year 1923
Received for
Pounds     or Valued at
Cheese produced in factories, other than
cottage, skim milk, cheese curd, cooked,
buttermilk and cream cheese .......... 332,426,653 $ 75,083,501.66
Cottage, skim milk, cheese curd, cooked,
buttermilk and cream cheese ..........  5,570,002   368,438.79
Cheese produced on farms ...............  308,117      98,699.00
Butter produced in factories ............. 148,989,584  66,388,231.38
Farm made butter ......................  8,666,037  4,733,556.00
Condensery products:
Evaporated, condensed, powdered, con-
centrated milk and evaporated cream  612,134,253  38,581,438.16
Evaporated, concentrated, powdered and
condensed skim milk ................  6,297,697   189,124.55


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