348 



ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



manufacture and sale of legitimate materials and tends to encourage 

 the use of these materials by farmers in preventing and combating 

 diseases and insect pests of their crop plants and live stock. 



INTERSTATE SAMPLES. 



During the fiscal year the board reported to the solicitor of the 

 department 118 cases presenting alleged violations of law and with 

 recommendations that the facts be transmitted to the Attorney Gen- 

 eral to institute criminal or seizure action. Disposition was made of 

 208 cases by correspondence with the manufacturers. These cases 

 presented violations which were technical only, were not flagrant, 

 or cases in which the manufacturer gave reasonable and adequate 

 explanation of his failure to conform to the provisions of the act. 

 Action was taken to place in abej^ance 874 samples, which upon 

 examination and test were shown to be in compliance with the provi- 

 sions of the law, or were from shipments of the same goods made 

 prior to shipments for which the manufacturer had been convicted 

 and had after citation conformed to the requirements of the law. On 

 June 30, 1915, 29 cases were pending preliminary hearings, 54 were 

 before the board for final action, 280 were held in temporary abey- 

 ance pending the receipt of further information or the outcome of 

 prosecutions based on the same product, or correspondence with the 

 manufacturers, and 536 samples were undergoing analysis and test. 



The inspectors and sample collectors of the board, operating 

 throughout the United States, collected 1,117 samples during the 

 year. A general classification of the articles represented in the col- 

 lection is as follows : 



IMPORT SAMPLES. 



During the year 94 official and unofficial import samples of insecti- 

 cides and fungicides were collected by the various port laboratories 

 of the Bureau of Chemistry for examination and test bv the board. 

 Disposition was made of 82 samples, 9 official samples being found 

 adulterated or misbranded, or both, and it was recommended that 

 entry to this country be entirely forbidden or that the consignments 

 be released when correctly labeled. The remaining samples were 

 unofficial, 13 of them being found to be adulterated or misbranded, 

 or both, and in these cases it was recommended that future ship- 

 ments be detained, while GO were neither adulterated nor misbranded. 



