132 AGRICUIvTURE OF MAINE. 



thing in his power in this matter. As a matter of fact there 

 is no law on the statute book which provides a penalty for 

 the giving of short weight. The offender might be proceeded 

 against under other sections of the law, but there is no statute 

 which provides a penalty for this special offense. I hope that 

 some time in the future Maine will come up to the forefront. 

 I know Commissioner Buckley will do all in his power to give 

 the citizens of Maine full weight and full measure. 



Prof. J. M. Bartlett. 



I have been very much interested in the remarks made here. 

 Of course one of the objects of the Experiment Station has been 

 to provide means for the farmers to purchase food more cheap- 

 ly. I have been thinking since I came to this banquet that if 

 such a banquet as that could be furnished for the price asked, 

 the Station has accomplished its mission in that particular. 



The Station has done quite a little in regard to short weights 

 and measures, also in relation to the matter of pure food and 

 drugs. When we began this work of inspection, some six or 

 eight years ago, we found conditions in certain lines pretty bad ; 

 but of late years, and particularly in the last two years, we have 

 found a great improvement in the materials that we have in- 

 spected. For instance, take oysters. Perhaps you may not 

 know the custom that used to prevail in regard to oysters. They 

 used to be treated in such a way that they would absorb water. 

 They were taken from the salt water and soaked in fresh water 

 and they would absorb a great deal of water. Then the oysters 

 were kept in cans and ice put right in the cans, and when a pint 

 of oysters was measured out the liquid and the oysters were 

 taken together. As a matter of fact the customers then were 

 buying more than 25 per cent of water, and sometimes we could 

 drain out 40 per cent of water. But there has been a great 

 improvement since we have taken the matter up with the deal- 

 ers and threatened to treat them severely if they did not remedy 

 conditions. This last year in the inspection we found very few 

 oysters that carried more than the allowed amount of liquids. 

 In fact, when you buy a quart of oysters now, you get almost 



