Chapter 22.
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/statutes-at-large/vol-20/chapter-22-1087227·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 22.— An act for the protection of dairymen, and to prevent deception in sales of butter and cheese in the District of Columbia. Jan. 25, 1879. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.*, District of Columbia.Protection of dairymen. That every person who shall manufacture for sale, or who shall offer or expose for sale, any article or substance in semblance of butter or cheese, not the legitimate product of the dairy, and not made exclusively of milk or cream, but into which the oil or fat of animals, not produced from milk, enters as a component part, or into which melted butter, or any oil thereof, has been introduced Oleo-Margarine to be marked.to take the place of cream, shall distinctly and durably stamp, brand, or mark upon every tub, firkin, box or package of such article or substance, the word Oleo-Margarine, in plain Roman letters, not less than half an inch square placed horizontally in proper order thus:
OLEO-MARGARINE. And in case of retail sales of such article or substance in parcels the seller shall in all cases deliver therewith to the purchaser a written or printed label bearing the plainly written or printed word Oleo-Margarine, in type or letters as aforesaid; and every sale of such article or substance not so stamped, branded, marked, or labeled shall be void, and no action shall be maintained for the price thereof. Sec. 2. Penalty for not marking. That every person who shall sell, or offer to sell, or have in his or her possession with intent to sell, contrary to the provisions of this act, any of the said article or substance required by the first section of this act to be stamped, marked, or labeled as therein stated, not so stamped, marked, or labeled, or in case of retail sale without delivery of a label required by section one of this act, shall, for each such offense, forfeit and pay a fine of one hundred dollars, to be recovered by indictment in any court of the District of Columbia of competent jurisdiction for the trial of misdemeanors, and the one-half of such fine when paid to go to the informer, and the residue to be paid into the treasury of the District of Columbia.
Sec. 3. Penalty for selling without label, etc. That every person who shall sell, or offer or expose for sale, or who shall cause or procure to be sold, or ottered or exposed for sale, any article or substance required by the first section of this act to be marked, branded, stamped, or labeled, not so marked, branded, stamped, or labeled, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on trial for such misdemeanor, proof of the sale or offer or exposal alleged shall be presumptive evidence of knowledge of the character of the article so sold or offered.
Approved, January 25, 1879.