22 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



tories, and of the cane-sugar factories of Louisiana, of the Hawaiian 

 Islands, and of our tropical dependencies. 



EXAMINATION OF FOREIGN FOOD PRODUCTS. 



A large amount of work has been done during the j^ear in the exami- 

 nation of foreign food products. We desire to send abroad only 

 tliose food products which are wholesome and free from adulteration. 

 In like manner we ask that similar products sent to us from foreign 

 countries l)e true to name and label and free from adulteration and 

 injurious ingi-edients. To this end, an extensive study of such 

 imported products has been authorized by Congress and has been 

 rigorously prosecuted during the j'ear. The results of these studies 

 liave been in a measure confidential, and instead of being published 

 liave been transmitted to the Secretary of Agriculture for his guidance 

 in discharging the duties imposed upon him by the act of Congi-ess 

 authorizing the investigation. 



Tlie extension of this investigation to all imported food products 

 will undoubtedly prove of the greatest advantage to our people, since 

 it will result in the exclusion of harmful and adulterated articles and 

 of those which are sold under false and misleading names or labels. 

 In securing these samples, the Department has had the active coopera- 

 tion of the Secretarj' of the Treasury and of the officials of the custom 

 houses at the more important ports of entrj". 



STUDY OP THE SUGAR-BEET INDUSTRY. 



The distribution of beet seed and the analysis of the beets produced 

 therefrom in various parts of the countr}^ have been continued as in 

 former years. These studies are now chieflj^ valuable for the interest 

 they excite among our farmers and for the data which they afford 

 relating to the influence of climate on the richness of sugar in the 

 beet. It has been well established by tlie work of the Department, 

 extending now over twenty years, that the saccharine strength of the 

 beet tends to diminish as the cultivation is pushed southward of a 

 certain isothermic line. The position of this line is not fixed with 

 absolute exactness, and from the very nature of the problem can not 

 be, but it seems to lie somewhere between the isotherms of 69° and 

 71° F., mean temperature, for the months of June, July, and August, 

 the three months most imijortant in the growth of the beet. Whether 

 this deterioration be due to temperature alone or to combined influ- 

 ences of temperature and other meteorological conditions does not 

 definitely appear. The more reasonable view is the latter one, and 

 for this reason the isotherm alone ought not to be taken as an abso- 

 lute limit in defining the zones of successful beet culture. 



The data already at hand are sufficient for pointing out in a general 

 way the region suitable to the production of beets under the conditions 

 which generally obtain. It must not be forgotten, however, fchat 

 exceptional meteorological conditions often arise which produce varia- 

 tions of the most pronounced order. Tliis fact renders desirable the 

 continuation of comparative studies under carefully controlled condi- 

 tions, and such studies have been alreadj^ inaugurated in connection 

 with several experiment stations. 



DETERIORATION OF THE GLUTEN CONTENT OF WHEAT. 



Statements have reached the Department from various parts of the 

 country .showing a deterioration in the gluten content of wheat, which 

 in some instances — as, for example, where the flour is used for the 



