44 The Bulletin. 



these being a carload of wheat bran which had ground with it red corn cobs to 

 the amount of 35 per cent of its weight, and several cars of mixed feeds con- 

 taining rice chaff to the extent of 25 or more per cent of their weight. Large 

 quantities of concentrated feeds are brought into the State, which, with those 

 raised on the farm, amount in value to about ten million dollars. It means 

 a great deal for the dairymen and feeders of all classes of stock to be able to 

 get the very best material obtainable for their money for use as feeds. 



INSPECTION OF HUMAN FOODS. 



The Legislature of 1899 passed what is known as the Pure Food Law, and 

 without any appropriation from the State made it the duty of the Department 

 of Agriculture to enforce its provisions. Since the passage of the act seven 

 reports have been issued, containing chemical and microscopic examinations of 

 about 3,500 samples of foods and drinks, obtained in almost every town in 

 the State, and including practically all of the. foods and drinks offered for 



sale in the State. ^. . ^r, ^ ^ 



The amount of adulteration at first was very large, amounting m the first 

 year to 50 per cent of the materials examined. By publication of the results 

 in the Bulletins of the Department, in newspapers, and by correspondence 

 with grocers, manufacturers and users, sentiment in favor of pure food has 

 largely grown, and there has been a decided decrease in the amount of adul- 

 teration of practically all classes of foods— the per cent of adulteration in the 

 last report (1906) being 25 per cent, or less than one-half what it was at 

 first. These results have been accomplished largely by publicity. When 

 certain articles or brands of foods were found to contain objectionable sub- 

 stances the facts were communicated to the grocer selling them, to the manu- 

 facturer putting them up, and the facts were published. By this means a 

 great manv manufacturers, most of our grocerymen, and many of our citizens 

 are now familiar with the food law and its requirements, and much less adul- 

 terated food is now found on the markets of the State. This course, however, 

 does not reach all violators, and in the future prosecutions will be brought 

 for violations of the law. One of the. most common sources of adulteration is 

 the use of artificial preservatives. A special warning has been issued against 

 the use of these, especially in meats, and a vigorous campaign pushed during 

 the summer months in the examination' of these products, along with soft 

 drinks, many of which in the past have been artificially preserved. 



MISCELLANEOUS ANALYSES. 



In addition to fertilizers, concentrated stock feeds and human foods re- 

 ferred to in the previous sections, a very large number of other analyses are 

 made for farmers and citizens of the State, including cotton-seed meal and 

 other fertilizer materials, mineral waters, rocks, ores and minerals, marls, 

 lime-stone, manure, soils, etc. 



In two years 1902-1904, 4,811 such analyses wore made, and in 1905-190G, 

 5,888, which is far in excess of the amount of work of this kind done by any 

 other State, in our knowledge, for its citizens. 



TEST FABMS. 



The department is maintaining and operating four test or experiment farms, 

 located in different parts of the State on large and different types of soils, for 

 the purpose of obtaining reliable information of practicable value to farmers. 

 The major part of the experiments with field crops on all the test farms is 

 conducted according to one general plan, so that results may be comparable 

 and furnish data as to fertilization, culture and methods of handling these 

 crops on the different soils and in different sections of the State. 



After these various tests have been repeated a sufficient number of times to 

 assure accuracy, the results are given to the farmers of the State both by 

 word of mouth and by publication in the monthly Bulletin. Then other crops 

 are taken up. To tlie present time most attention has been devoted to corn 

 and cotton, the State's two leading staple crops; but considerable work has 



