BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 599 



BUSINESS AND CLERICAL OPERATIONS. 



Tlie total nj^propriation for the Bureau of Chemistiy for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, was $9G3.780, of which amount 

 $107,200 was appropriated for the purpose of making investigations 

 in regard to the application of chemistry to agriculture and for mis- 

 cellaneous investigations and tests for other departments, $4,280 for 

 investigating the character of the chemical and physical tests which 

 are applied to American food products in foreign countries and for 

 inspecting the same before shipment, $010,110 for the enforcement 

 of the food and drugs act, and $242,190 for salaries. 



During the year a rigid examination has been made of the business 

 and office system of the bureau in connection with the investigation 

 by the President's Commission on Economy and Efficienc3^ The pre- 

 liminar}^ work for adapting and installing in this bureau the account- 

 ing system outlined by that commission was completed, and the system 

 made ready for operation at the beginning of the new fiscal year. 

 A uniform system for filing correspondence and keeping records for 

 the branch laboratories was worked out. Improved equipment for 

 copying records and documents and for sealing envelopes has been 

 installed with increased economy and efRciency. Machines for record- 

 ing dictation have been used in certain lines of the work with good 

 results, and it is believed that their use can be extended with advan- 

 tage. 



During the year 2,851 purchase orders were drawn, 5,040 vouchers 

 were checked and passed for audit and pa^nnent, and 678 letters of 

 authorization for travel or station expenses were issued to the mem- 

 bers of the bureau. One hundred and forty-three thousand letters 

 were prepared, copies of which, together with approximately 71,428 

 letters received from 25,065 correspondents, were indexed and filed. 

 One hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-eight mimeo- 

 graph letters were made on 795 subjects. 



In the interstate and import office 6,769 guaranties under the food 

 and drugs act were examined, approved, and serial number assigned. 

 Complete records of all interstate cases and seizures and all import 

 cases were kept. The records, showing the action on each case at 

 every stage and the progress of the case from the time the sample is 

 received until the case is transmitted to the Solicitor, are voluminous 

 and complex, involving a vast number of details. This office also 

 keeps the bureau records of the cases under the insecticide and fungi- 

 cide act, in which this bureau cooperates with the board charged with 

 the enforcement of that act. The clerical force of the bureau reported 

 6,938 hearings before the Board of Food and Drug Inspection or at 

 the branch laboratorias. 



The system of purchasing chemicals and chemical supplies in large 

 quantities and distributing them from a central storeroom to the vari- 

 ous laboratories, both in and out of Washington, has worked for econ- 

 omy and efficiency in several ways. Every shipment of supplies is 

 tested before being accejited, w-hich results in maintaining a high and 

 uniform standard of quality with a low cost for testing. 



