72 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



REPORT OF THE DAIRY AND FOOD 

 COMMISSIONER. 



Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1908. 



Hon. K B. Critchfield, Secretary of Agriculture. 



Dear Sir: — I have the honor to submit herewith the annual 

 report of the Dairy and Food Bureau of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture for the year ending December 31, 1908. It covers the operations 

 of the year and contains such other details as may be useful for 

 ])ublic information. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



The Dairy and Food Bureau has come to the close of another 

 year of its history with the conviction that the situation is very 

 much better than it has been at any i)eriod in the past. This does 

 not mean that it has come to the end of its labors; quite the con- 

 trary. With the weapons provided, it has done the best it could 

 to enforce the laws and cultivate a sentiment in favor of honest 

 food among manufacturers, retailers and consumers. The various 

 agencies at its command have been employed so far as possible in 

 an educational way, rather than for any other purpose. Even the 

 prosecutions instituted have had information, instruction and warn- 

 ing in view rather than punishment for the sake of punishment. 

 For it is a truth, sometimes forgotten by those charged with the 

 enforcement of law, that many violations of its provisions occur 

 through ignorance rather than malice. Once instruct the honest 

 citizen who has done wrong with no evil intention, and he will be 

 found 1 hereafter among the most faithful and obedient servants of 

 justice. It is only among those who are governed by greed that 

 one finds the effort to educate hopeless. Those who do not wish to 

 be instructed in their duty can never be lifted to a higher level. 

 Only the drastic hand of the law can teach them respect for its 

 authority and for the rights of the public. But wherever possible 

 the year with which this report has to do, was a campaign of educa- 

 tion concerning the dairy and food products of the State. 



THE AGE OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The rapid advance of scientific knowledge has brought us face to 

 face with a new world during the last quarter of a century. In no 

 other branch of useful knowledge has greater progress been made 

 than in the principles of hygeine, proper sanitation and precau- 

 tionary measures against the spread of disease by means of the 

 bacilli which are at the bottom of most of the physical distress in 



