as electric power. The dairy industry contin- ues to survive in Vermont. There are fewer farms than ever before, and milk prices con- tinue to rise and fall with regularity, to the exasperation of farmers. Vermont is still fa- mous for its butter. ____________________ Paul S. Gillies, Esq., is a partner in the Montpelier firm of Tarrant, Gillies, Merri- man & Richardson and is a regular contribu- tor to the Vermont Bar Journal.
____________________ 1
HAROLD FISHER WILSON, THE HILL COUNTRY OF
NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND 205 (1936). Butter was the most important agricultural product in Vermont as early as 1850, when Vermont produced more butter than any other New England state. CHRIS- TOPHER MCGRORY KLYZA, STEPHEN C. TROMBLULAK, THE STORY OF VERMONT: A NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY
72 (1999). 2
EDWIN C. ROSWENC, AGRICULTURAL POLICIES IN VER-
MONT 1860-1945 at 119 (1981). 3
port (1908), at 109-118. 5
6 7 8
Id. at 195. VERMONT FARMER, DEC. 27, 1872. 4 Ivan C. Weld, A Talk to the Creamery Boys of Vermont, Vt. State Bd. of Agriculture, Annual Re-
WILSON, supra note 1, at 201. Id. at 198. Id. at 205.
Id. at 199; HOWARD S. RUSSELL, A LONG, DEEP FUR- ROW: THREE CENTURIES OF FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND
262 (1976). 9
VERMONT DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, VERMONT: A
GUIDE TO THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE 41 (1937); A.D. Evarts, The Centrifugal Creamery System, in HI-
RAM A. CUTTING, TREES OF VERMONT 78 (1886). 10
http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/history-
dairy.html. 11
html. 12
14
http://whatceresmightsay.blogspot.com/ 2011/04/slow-movement-to-commercial-butter.
Mount Ida School v. Gilman, 96 Vt. 13 (1922). 13 LAWS OF 1865, No. 51. G.L. § 4976.
15 LAWS OF 1888, No. 108; VT. STAT. § 4327 et seq. 16 Id., § 4332. 17 Id., § 4330. 18 Id., § 4328.
19 LAWS OF 1906, No. 138.
20 THE PUBLIC STATUTES OF VERMONT (1906) § 4950. 21 LAWS OF 1910, No. 166. G.L. § 5937.
22 23 Id., § 5941. 24 Id., §§ 5727, 5732. 25 LAWS OF 1917, No. 186; GENERAL LAWS (1917) §
5916. 26
GENERAL LAWS (1917) § 5907.
27 State v. Auclair, 110 Vt. 147, 158-159 (1939). 28 Smith v. Moore, 74 Vt. 81, 88 (1902). 29 Id. at 84.
30 Tyler v. Turner Center System, 102 Vt. 202 State v. Field, 95 Vt. 375 (1921).
(1929). 31
32 Id. at 381.
33 Nye v. Merriam. 35 Vt. 438 (1862). A firkin is Wheelock v. Haskell, 98 Vt. 47, 50 (1924).
eight gallons or fifty-six pounds of butter. 34
35 Bessette v. St. Albans Co-operative Creamery, Learmouth v. Caledonia County Co-op. Assn, Clifford v. West Hartford Creamery Co., Inc., McEwen v. Shannon, 64 Vt. 583, 585 (1892).
Inc., 107 Vt. 103, 111 (1935). 36
Inc., 109 Vt. 526 (1938). 37
103 Vt. 229, 256-257 (1931). 38
39 Id. at 588. 40 Id. at 587.
41 Houghton v. Carpenter, 40 Vt. 588 (1868).
42 Vermont Farm-Mach. Co. v. Batch-Elder, 68 Vt. Id. at 431-342.
430 (1896). 43
44 Id. at 433. 45 Id. at 439.
46 Bond v. Clark, 35 Vt. 577, 579 (1863).
47 Cole v. North Danville Co-op. Creamery Ass’n, Buck v. Rutland R. Co., 101 Vt. 282 (1928).
103 Vt. 32 (1930). 48
49 Packett v. Moretown Creamery Co., L.R.A. Section 70 of the Vermont Constitution pro-
1918F, 173 (1917). 50
vides, “The General Assembly may pass laws compelling compensation for injuries received by employees in the course of their employment resulting in death or bodily hurt, for the benefit of such employees, their widows or next of kin. It may designate the class or classes of employers and employees to which such laws shall apply.” The amendment, passed in 1913, led to the 1915
legislation. See LAWS OF VERMONT (1915), No. 164. 51
H. MCGEE, ON FOOD AND COOKING 33-35 (1984).
Lard was the principal ingredient of margarine in the early decades after its invention. Since 1900, margarine has been made of vegetable fats, after the discovery of hydrogenation. That process al- lows margarine to remain spreadable after refrig-
REV.STAT. § 3736. A two hundred dollar fine was the punishment for selling oleo without the label.
eration, unlike butter. 52
ROSWENC, supra note 2, at 124-125. 53
U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Revised Regu- lations Concerning Oleomargarine (1902), 3-5. See Geoffrey Miller, Public Choice at the Dawn of the Special Interest State: The Story of Butter and Margarine, 77 CAL. L. REV. 83 (1989) (discuss- ing the progress of the 1886 Oleomargarine Act
from movement to law). 54
429 (1911). 55
Powell v. Pennsylvania, 127 U.S. 678, 8 Sup. Ct. 992, 32 L. Ed 253 (1888). For a Vermont ex- planation of this case, see State v. Haskell, 84 Vt.
Powell v. Pennsylvania, 127 U.S. at 685. 56 ROSWENC, supra note 2, at 125.
57 LAWS OF 1890, No. 53;
VT.STAT. §§ 4337. One
half of the fine was paid to the complainant. 58
Collins v. New Hampshire, 18 S.Ct. 768, 769- 770 (1898). That same year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania law that pro- hibited the sale or use of oleo entirely. Schol- lenberger v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 18
S.Ct. 757 (1898). 59
21 U.S.C.A. § 25. 60 ROSWENC, supra note 2, at 128; LAWS OF 1923,
No. 109; PUBLIC LAWS OF VERMONT (1933) § 7754. 61
Commissioner of Agriculture (1922) at 35. 62
63 LAWS OF 1995 (Adj. Sess.), No. 47. 64 6 V.S.A. § 2801. 65 12 V.S.A. § 2731.
66 9A V.S.A. § 2-313(1)(a). 67 9 V.S.A. § 2574.
68 VT ADC § 1.9741(25)-5.9. 69 6 V.S.A. § 2741.
70 VT ADC 2-3-403.1.9. This is equivalent to the VT ADC 2-2-3-2.4 & 2-2-3-5.2.3.
standards set by the U.S.D.A. 21 CFR § 527.100. 71
72 BEE WILSON, SWINDLED: THE DARK HISTORY OF FOOD FRAUD, FROM POISONED CANDY TO COUNTERFEIT COFFEE
168 (2008). 73
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_
State/Ag_Overview/AgOverview_VT.pdf. 74
U.S.D.A., N.A.S.S. Statistics, at
www.nass.
usda.gov.
Agriculture of Vermont: Biennial Report of the ROSWENC, supra note 2, at 130.
14
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2013
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Ruminations: The Legal History of Vermont Butter
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