202 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Office of the Secretary. In addition, the results of more than 60 

 investigations were made public and those of about 30 others are in 

 press. The experimental work upon a number of other investiga- 

 tions has been completed. 



The bureau has endeavored to meet, or even to anticipate, the needs 

 of the various war agencies. Every single request for assistance 

 has been met, so far as it has lain in the bureau's power. Indeed, 

 more offers of assistance have been made by the bureau than the 

 war agencies have found it possible to accept. In consequence, the 

 war work of the bureau has been most diverse and there is hardly a 

 war agency with which the bureau has not cooperated. Much time 

 has been given by members of the bureau to service upon important 

 war committees, to the furnishing or gathering of technical informa- 

 tion requested in connection with war matters, and to acting as 

 consultants. The technical war work of the bureau has ranged from 

 the analysis of the garbage of the cantonments to the supervision 

 of chemical plants manufacturing war materials. The bureau has 

 not been intrusted with the responsibility for any one single large 

 chemical war undertaking, but it has assisted in innumerable ways 

 whenever opportunity presented. Many of the details of such war 

 work are given in theVollowing pages. Some of it is of too confi- 

 dential a nature to mention. 



Under the provisions of the Food Production Act of August 10, 

 1917, enacted by Congress for the purpose of stimulating food pro- 

 duction during the war, the work of the bureau was shaped in the 

 following directions: The prevention of spoilage and waste in the 

 handling of poultry and eggs; the stimulation of the production 

 of sea food ; the stimulation of the consumption of fish and the pre- 

 vention of spoilage in the transportation of fish to market; the 

 prevention of dust explosions and fires in mills, elevators, and 

 thrashing machines in order to conserve grain; the stimulation of 

 the industry of dehydrating fruits, vegetables, and fish in order to 

 conserve perishables. The details of this work will be found in the 

 following pages, under the general headings of conservation, demon- 

 stration, and technological investigations. 



During the past few years the wisdom of the legislation authoriz- 

 ing the bureau to " furnish * * * samples of pure sugars, naval 

 stores, microscopical specimens, and other products " has been dem- 

 onstrated. The interruption of imports created a famine in rare 

 and unusual chemicals necessary in chemical and medical research 

 and practice. In a number of instances the bureau has been able, 

 acting under the authority above quoted, to assist by supplying such 

 rare materials as certain sugars, dyes, amino-acids, and organic chem- 

 icals. The service thus rendered has not been extensive. It should, 

 however, be extended, since there is perhaps nothing more important 

 that a Government agency might do to assist in the establishment of 

 a strong, self-reliant chemical industry. 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT. 



While the changes in the trade and the scarcity and high price 

 of raw materials have tended to revive flagrant types of adulteration 

 and misbranding that have been almost unknown for a decade, the 

 spirit pervading the country has been such that the bureau, with its 



