Show v glmpureJBrandy < Washington isThe July num ber of consular reports contain reports i re-ports by Consul George J Gifford of Larschelle on the falsification of brandy imported from Larochelle France to the United States The production of genuine brandy from the white wine of France Gifford thinks has substantially ceased on account of the failure of the vine and the greater part of the brandy now sold is prepared from alcohol obtained from grain potatoes or beets Coincident with the failure i of white wine was the appearance I of large quantities of alcohol in va rious parts of France adjacent to the white wine producing section of the country most of it coming from Germany This importation of alcohol he says increases from year to year and is new 46 per cent greater than in 1886 Gifford clases his reports as follows All French brandy might properly and perhaps ought to be excluded from the United States on sanitary grounds There is a strong presumption against the purity of a large part of it and it is unfortunately unfortu-nately almost impossible to detect the fraud by chemical anylaais especially where the various mix tures now employed are piped through the still The reputation of a few great houses that now place on the market only what they draw from their own stocks accumulated before 1879 might be a sufficient guarantee of the purity of their merchandise but even with respect to them it may be said that they dose their brandies with caro mels and other substances in order to adapt them to the tastes of their English and American customers They would never venture to send to the United States a strictly pure brandy as it comes from the still for our amateurs would regard it as harsh and inferior and perhaps a falsified article In any case these houses could hardly be exempted by name from the operation of such measures as might be taken to protect public health General measures excluding the article entirely would seem therefore to be the only effeetive defense against the admission of poison for which our people pay 51600000 or 32000000 a year besides be-sides import duty which in the case of an impure article is over 100 percent per-cent of the invoice value |