No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 91 



It is believed tluit an ideal arraDgeinenl lui- handling the work of 

 the Board would be to have such an agent in each county. Under 

 the present arrangement the territory is too large. However, the 

 general plan is working out satisfactorily and in the future it may 

 be i)ossible to divide the iState into smaller areas and thereby ob- 

 tain more efficient service. 



The Auditing Division was in charge of M. C. Butterworth. 



MEAT HYGIENE. 



The Act of Assembly, approved May 25, 1907, P. L. 187, was the 

 first Meat Hygiene law placed upon the statute books of any state. 

 It was changed while going through the Legislature and lost many 

 of the essential features contained in the original bill. It was a 

 beginning, however, and an effort was made to enforce it. It did 

 not require long to find out that it was weak, nevertheless, much 

 good was accomplished in its enforcement. 



Nothing was done in the way of new legislation for the succeeding 

 five years, for the reason thatjt was desired to give the law a thor- 

 ough trial and study the subject of Meat Hygiene legislation from a 

 practical point of view and collect information that would be useful 

 in drawing a new law. The data was gathered and incorporated into 

 a bill which was presented to the 1913 Legislature, but failed of 

 passage by a few votes. I*ractically the same bill was introduced 

 and passed the 1915 Legislature and was approved by the Governor, 

 May 28, 1915. It is under this law we are now working. 



It is still the only state Meat Hygiene law in this country and 

 about as fair and practical as can be drawn to take care of all 

 branches of the business. There are just as many straight going, 

 conscientious men engaged in the meat business as there are in other 

 lines of trade. 



A just Meat Hygiene law should give as much protection to the 

 honest and tidy butcher as it does to the public which uses the 

 meat. Honest meat dealers do not place on the market diseased or 

 unwholesome meat, neither do they keep their establishments dirty. 

 The honest, clean class of butchers do not have to be watched to 

 keep them going right. In the meat trade there is a class of un- 

 scrupulous, untidy, careless fellows as there is in other forms of 

 industry. It is against this class that the consuming public and the 

 reliable dealer must be protected. The man who tries to do right, 

 invests capital in making improvements and installing up-to-date 

 equipment that can be easily kept clean, should not be compelled 

 to compete with those Avho are unequipped, unscrupulous and slov- 

 enly. Working with this idea in view, the new law was constructed. 



It defines what constitutes an establishment. This is important 

 for the reason that the question is sometimes raised as to whether 

 this kind of w^agon or, that kind of structure, and how much ground 

 adjacent, are subject to the provisions of the law. 



It was an establisliod practice, iiarticularly in the rural sections, 

 for butchers to keep hogs around the slaughter houses to eat the 

 offal. Some places were so conveniently arranged that the offal 

 was shoved out of the back door where the hogs were waiting to 

 receive it. Hogs were allowed to wallow under the slaughter house. 



