34 ANNUAL KEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of Agriculture are extremely varied in character; they include crimi- 

 nal actions for trespasses on National Forests, prosecutions of manu- 

 facturers and dealers who ship or sell adulterated and misbranded 

 foods or drugs, prosecutions of persons who ship iminspected meats in 

 interstate commerce, prosecutions against railroad companies for 

 transporting live stock out of areas quarantined for disease, actions 

 against carriers for detaining live stc^ck without feed, water, or rest 

 in transit for more than twenty-eight hours, prosecutions for the inter- 

 state shipment of game killed in violation of state game laws, civil 

 actions for the seizure of adulterated or misbranded foods and drugs, 

 and suits for damages for injuries to the National Forests. 



Important decisions upon questions arising in such cases have been 

 handed down by the United States district and circuit courts and 

 circuit courts of appeals. At the close of the fiscal year 1910 five 

 cases in which this Department is directly interested were on the 

 docket of the Supreme Court of the United States. Many of these 

 cases have attracted considerable attention throughout the country, 

 notably United States v. Grimaud, involving the validity and effect 

 of the regulations made by the Secretary of Agriculture regarding 

 the National Forests; United States v. Baltimore & Ohio South- 

 western Railroad Company, involving the unit of violation under the 

 Twenty-eight Hour Law; United States v. Johnson, involving the 

 question whether the Food and Drugs Act applies to alleged false 

 claims as to curative properties of proprietary medicines, and United 

 States V. Pittsburg Melting Compan}^, involving the constitutionality 

 of the Meat-Inspection Law. 



The agricultural appropriation act of May 26, 1910, contains the 

 following provision: "Hereafter the legal work of the Department of 

 Agriculture shall be performed under the supervision and direction 

 of the Solicitor." This was, in effect, simply a recognition by Con- 

 gress of the position of the Sohcitor since the ofHce was created, on June 

 17, 1905, by General Order No. 85, as legal adviser to the Secretary of 

 Agriculture. Pursuant to this provision. General Order No. 140 was 

 issued, effective July 1, 1910, supplementing General Orders Nos. 

 85 and 138, and outlining the work to be performed by the Solicitor 

 on behalf of the various Bureaus, OfTices, and Divisions of this Depart- 

 ment. By General Order No. 138 the legal work of the Forest Service 

 was placed under the immediate supervision of the Solicitor; there- 

 tofore, while handled in general under his direction, this work was in 

 the immediate charge of the law officer of the Forest Service. That 

 office has now been abohshed. 



Since January 15, 1910, therefore, the law work of the Forest Service 

 has been under the immediate direction of the Solicitor. Since that date 

 105 cases of apparent violations of the acts passed for the protection 

 of National Forests were reported to the Attorney-General for 



