228 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



In brinoin<2: those matters to your attention, I have mentioned in 

 a general way some of the work which is being done by the State 

 Livestock Sanitary Board. There are two other lines of work in 

 which the Board is engaged to which I have not referred, namely: 

 the licensing of stallions and meat inspection. I will have nothing 

 to say in regard to the work in connection with horse breeding as 

 Dr. Gay, who is in charge of that work, is on the program at a sub- 

 sequent session. 



Concerning meat inspection, j^ou are perhaps all familiar with 

 the fact that the last legislature passed an act authorizing the State 

 Livestock Sanitary Board to establish and administer a Meat Hy- 

 giene Service, and providing ten agents to do the work. Of course, 

 ten men cannot examine all of the meats slaughtered or sold in 

 Pennsylvania, but they can exercise considerable supervision over 

 the slaughter-houses and meat markets and see that the sanitary 

 conditions at these establishments are what they should be; and 

 they can also examine a large number of the animals slaughtered 

 for food, and a great amount of the meats and meat products. The 

 act authorizes the establishment of local meat inspection in cities, 

 and boroughs and townships of the first class, the idea being that 

 the local authorities can look after this work within their jurisdic- 

 tion and that the ten state agents can devote their attention to the 

 work in unorganized localities. A state meat inspection service 

 will always be necessary because many slaughter-houses are 

 located just outside the limits of a city or borough. The purpose 

 of this meat inspection law is twofold; one is to insure to the con- 

 sumer a wholesome meat product, and the other to give home- 

 grown and home-slaughtered meats the same standing with the 

 consumer as meat which is shipped into the State from the large 

 abattoirs in the West, which are under the inspection of veterin- 

 arians in the employ of the United Slates Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry. You are, no doubt, aware that slaughter-houses doing an 

 inrerstate business are under the inspection of the Bureau of Ani- 

 mal Industry, and that their products are marked with a stamp. 

 A great many people have come to know that meats marked in this 

 manner are produced under the best conditions possible, and there 

 is a preference for the meats bearing the government stamp, es- 

 pecially in the larger cities. Anything tliat will improve the char- 

 acter, and increase the demand for home-slaughtered meats will en- 

 large the market for home-grown animals. 



THE ACRE AND THE MARKET. 



Br Dr. J. D. Dbtrich, Scrantnn, Pa. 



It was a great treat, I assure you, for me to hear Dr. Hunt, 

 Dean of the State College of Pennsylvania, deliver his excellent 

 and timely address on the subject of the soil yesterday evening, and 

 then to have Professor Carr, of Washington, D. G., take up the 

 same subject and discuss it from a different standpoint; while it 



