REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 201 



In the Service and Regulatory Announcements were published 52 

 opinions and 600 notices of judgment. 



All the work on the certification of colors was concentrated in 

 Washington. The laboratory at New York City was transferred to 

 new and more commodious quarters in the United States Appraiser's 

 Stores. The St. Paul laboratory was moved into the new Federal 

 building in Minneapolis. The dairy laboratory was abolished and its 

 work distributed among other laboratories of the bureau. 



A separate office has been established to deal with cases of false 

 and fraudulent labeling of medicines and mineral waters under the 

 Sherley amendment to the food and drugs act. To this office are also 

 referred such medical matters as may arise in connection with the 

 work of the bureau. At the request of the Secretary an officer of 

 the United States Public Health Service was detailed to take charge. 

 In consequence this work has been carried on more expeditiously and 

 efficiently than heretofore. 



A very close inspection was maintained during the past } r ear over 

 the early shipments of oranges and grapefruit. In this campaign 

 the bureau received the active help of the greater part of the citrus 

 fruits producers. Comparatively few sweated, immature oranges or 

 grapefruit were marketed. The better quality of the fruit is be- 

 lieved to have resulted in a steadier market, so that the producer as 

 well as the consumer benefited. 



The unusual demand for cotton lint by the munitions factories 

 greatly increased the delinting of cotton seed. The cake and meal 

 made from such delinted seed has usually less protein than that from 

 undelinted seed. Many mills in labeling their product used the 

 analyses of former years, thus misleading the consumer, who, as a 

 rule, was unable to protect himself because of the rising market. 

 With the assistance of State officials, the Bureau has taken action in 

 many cases. 



Based upon cooperative sanitary surveys of the waters over oyster 

 beds in certain sections, described in the report for the last two years, 

 the department, by appropriate notice, warned the producers against 

 the shipment interstate of oysters from such sections during the fall, 

 spring, and summer, when the oysters are not hibernating. In the 

 case of particular regions warning of this nature had been issued 

 some few seasons prior to last year. This warning had not been 

 heeded in all cases. Last fall prosecutions were brought, with the 

 result that all shipments from such condemned territory thereafter 

 were stopped in the fall and spring. 



Other forms of adulteration not already mentioned that received 

 especial attention are: The substitution of mountain maple, Acer 

 spicatum, for cramp bark, Viburnum opulus, the adulteration of 

 oysters, scallops, and canned tomatoes with water, the substitution 

 of colored starch paste for tomato sauce, the reprocessing of spoiled 

 canned goods, the traffic in cull beans, in decomposed tomato prod- 

 ucts, in rancid olive oil, in wormy horse beans, the substitution of 

 foreign fat for cacao butter in, and the addition of cacao shells to, 

 cacao products, the adulteration of rice bran with rice hulls, the 

 coloring of inferior macaroni and of plain noodles, the misbranding 

 of domestic macaroni in simulation of imported goods, and tne 

 adulteration of oats with water or weed seeds. 



