32 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



pers wherever the service is available to secure an inspection by a 

 Federal inspector before the product is shipped. This service is 

 permissive only. The certificates issued are prima facie evidence 

 in the courts of the United States as to the grade and quality of 

 the product inspected. In many shipping areas the demand for this 

 service was already loud and insistent. 



To meet this active and potential demand it is estimated that no 

 less than 1,000 inspectors will ultimately be necessary, although a 

 majority of them will be part-time men. It should be noted that 

 over 550 inspectors have been licensed during the first three months 

 of the current fiscal year. It is expected that this work will pay its 

 own way through the fees collected, but these fees must be made 

 reexpendable or there must be provided a fund of about $1,000,000 

 annually upon which to draw for salaries and expenses. The act, 

 however, carried not a dollar of increase for the inspection item, 

 although the work to be done at shipping points is fully ten times as 

 extensive as that previously done in the terminal markets, where an 

 average of 50 inspectors were employed. 



The department was therefore limited to such work as could be 

 done through cooperative agreements with certain States, especially 

 those whose officers could operate revolving funds. Under these 

 agreements the inspectors have been employed and paid by the State, 

 and the fees have been assessed by, paid to, and reexpended by the 

 State. We have licensed these inspectors, supervised their work, and 

 charged the State a fee, which has gone to the United States Treasury 

 as miscellaneous receipts. 



Although active work has been possible in less than half the States, 

 certificates were issued on 72,666 carloads of produce at shipping 

 points and on 28,169 cars in terminal markets. This means that 

 every one of these shippers held prima facie evidence of having made 

 a good delivery if he based his sale on the Federal certificate. It 

 means also that every buyer who demanded " Government certificate 

 attached to bill of lading" bought with assurance that a competent 

 and impartial inspection had determined the variety and grade of 

 the fruits or vegetables offered him. 



The economic results of this innovation have been spectacular in 

 the swiftness of their development. They promise to be well-nigh 



