BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 445 



Asylum of the District of Columbia. Over 400 samples of foods were 

 also examined for the General Supply. Commission for the purpose of 

 assisting them in awarding contracts for the present fiscal year. 



VOLUME OP WORK. 



It is difScult to make an adequate statement of the volume of work 

 accomplished. The number of samples is a very unsatisfactory index 

 of the amount of work really done, owing to the wide variation in 

 the skill and time expended on different problems and different 

 classes of products. As a rough estimate of the volume of the work, 

 however, it may be said that the samples actually numbered and 

 examined in the division of foods during the fiscal year aggregated 

 5,028, several numbers of course being assigned in some cases to the 

 samples for a single investigation. 



WORK OF THE FOOD RESEARCH LABORATORY ON PERISHABLE 



PRODUCTS. 



The food research laboratory has continued the study of the han- 

 dling of poultry and eggs, improving quality and lessening loss thereby, 

 as well as furnishing information of assistance in enforcing the food 

 and drugs act. 



Field Investigations on Poultry. 



In July, 1910, the field branch of the food research laboratory wag 

 transferred from a poultry packing plant in Atchison, Kans., where 

 investigations had been going on for about seven months, to southwest- 

 ern Iowa. Here two poultry packing houses were sufficiently close 

 together to be drawn upon for material for laboratory investigation 

 and for shipping experiments. The laboratory was installed in a 

 room in one of the packing houses and was always open to visitors. 

 The breadth of the work is well indicated by the variety of persons 

 who came to the laboratory. They ranged from professors in agri- 

 cultural-colleges, keen to provide their students with the newest facts 

 concerning food investigation, to the railway refrigerator-service 

 man, anxious to get perishables to market in sound condition, and 

 the housewife who wants to know how to determine the wholesome- 

 ness and desirability of the poultry she purchases. 



Through the cooperation of the different branches of the industry 

 arrangements were made for the continuous observation and investi- 

 gation of poultry shipments from the time of killing, in Iowa, to the 

 sale to the consumer in New York. The special problem selected was 

 a comparison of " dry packing" with water chihing and "ice packing." 

 The dry-picked poultry was chilled in cold air until the temperature of 

 the body cavily indicated that the animal heat had been removed; then 

 it was packed in boxes, holding 12 birds, shipped in a refrigerated car, 

 and maintained under dry refrigeration until marketing was finished. 

 By the method of water chilling and "ice packing" the birds, after 

 picking, were throwTi into tap water for a short time; then into water 

 and ice; and finally into crushed ice, in which, packed in barrels, 

 they were shipped for the six or seven day haul to New York, where 

 they were kept in actual contact with ice until the close of marketing. 

 In order to determine the comparative value of these two methods of 



