272 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



vegetables. Every year there are a great many cull fruits and vege- 

 tables which are not suitable for sale as food. It is believed that 

 great quantities of these by-products of the farm could be turned 

 into profitable products if adequate study from a chemical techno- 

 logical viewpoint were made of the possibilities. There is a great 

 field for further development in the matter of fruit juices. The 

 bureau has already done enough work along this line to indicate 

 that a great deal of the f-ruit which now goes to waste or is used 

 with small profit to the farmer can possibly be used in the manu- 

 facture of fruit beverages, thus increasing the profits to the producer. 



WORK FOR OTHER DEPARTMENTS. 



The Bureau of Chemistrv does a large volume of chemical and 

 technological work for the other departments of the Government, in 

 addition to the extensive work done for other bureaus of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The specialists in the bureau act as consult- 

 ing chemists to other departments, aiding in the solution of problems 

 based on chemical methods. This service not only saves the Govern- 

 ment the expense of maintaining a number of small laboratories in 

 various departments, which in the aggregate would cost a large sum 

 to maintain, but makes available for this work a larger staff of spe- 

 cialists than is elsewhere assembled. The work can be done by men 

 who specialize much more economically and efficiently than by men 

 who work on a great variety of products as chemists in a small labor- 

 atory are usually required to do. 



The volume of work done for other departments has become so 

 large, however, that it can now be done only at the expense of the 

 work with which the Bureau of Chemistry is primarily concerned 

 and for which its appropriations are made, that is, agricultural 

 chemical investigations, the enforcement of the Federal food and 

 drugs act, and the tea inspection act. A small appropriation is made 

 annually to defray the cost of such work, but this sum is inadequate 

 to meet the requests for assistance from other departments. 



One of the most important lines of work is that for the Post Office 

 Department in the application of the law relating to the fraudulent 

 use of the mails to so-called remedies and mail-order treatments for 

 a great variety of diseases and disorders, ranging from obesity cures 

 to sure cures for tuberculosis or cancer. In order to apply the law 

 to fraudulent preparations of this nature it is necessary that a chemi- 

 cal analysis be made of the materials and that expert testimony be 

 furnished as to the ineffectiveness of the ingredients to alleviate or 

 cure the diseases for which the preparations are fraudulently sold 

 through the mails. Dealers in fraudulent cures can frequently be 

 reached more effectively through the application of the mail-order 

 law than the food and drugs act; in fact, effective control in this 

 manner can be inaugurated in certain instances where the food and 

 drugs act lacks jurisdiction. During the year the major portion of 

 the time of the staff of the drug division of the bureau was devoted 

 to the analysis of samples of these products and to furnishing assist- 

 ance to the officials of the Post Office Department in conducting hear- 

 ings and preparing and prosecuting court cases. 



A large number of samples of foods and drugs were analyzed for 

 the War and Navy Departments to see that they complied with the 



