EDITORIAL. 1083 



gating the white fly affecting the orange groves of Florida. It also 

 lias an emergency appropriation of $85,000 for its cotton-boll weevil 

 investigation, and of $82,500 for establishing a quarant ine against the 

 further spread of the gypsy and brown-tail moth- in New England, in 

 cooperation with the authorities in the different State- concerned. 

 The fund for the Bureau of Soils is increased sit;. son. making the 

 total for this year $221,460; that for the Bureau of Statistics amounts 

 bo$210,560; and for the Biological Survey $52,000, the same as last pear. 



The Office of Public Roads receives $70,000, an increase of $20,000, 

 and the Division of Publications $248,520, including, a- usual, $98,750 

 for the preparation and printing of Farmers' Bulletins. Other items 

 are: ( >ffice of the Secretary, Si L3,200; Library, $25,880, an increase of 

 nearly $5,000; Division of Accounts and Disbursements $32,210, and 

 contingent expenses, s:;7.<»(m>. 



The new allotment to the Department from the printing fund is 

 $300,000 instead of $185,000 as formerly. This increase is apparent 

 rather than real, as the $115,000 added is intended to compensate for 

 certain changes in the printing law which place a large share of the 

 expenses for the Yearbook, annual reports, and the like upon the 

 Department. This fund, together with the proceeds from the forest 

 reserves, which are available for the useof the Forest Service and are 

 to be taken into account in future estimates, makes the total income 

 of the Department for the fiscal year L907 over eleven million dollars. 



The growth of the Department in police or inspection duties is one 

 of the most salient features of the development of the past year. The 

 largest of these undertakings at present is the inspection of meats 

 and packing houses. The agitation for more thorough control of the 

 packing industry, with representations as to the inadequacy of the 

 laws in force and the insufficiency of the appropriations for carrying 

 them into effect, resulted in the passage of a law which is said by 

 experts to be the broadest and most stringent of its kind in force in 

 any country. Rarely has the weight of public sentiment been more 

 forcibly felt in Legislation than in the case of this law. 



The law provides for ante-mortem and post-mortem examination of 

 animals intended for meat, and of the products at various stages, all 

 parts found to be " unsound, unhealthy, unwholesome and otherwise 

 unfit for human food" to be destroyed for food purposes in the pres- 

 ence of an inspector. The inspection is extended to canned and other- 

 wise prepared meats, which are required to bear the label showing 

 that they have been inspected and passed, the same as in the c;ise of 

 fresh meat. The law directs that all products shall be condemned 

 which contain dyes, chemicals, preservatives, or ingredients injurious 

 to health, except when packed for export to a foreign country with 

 whose laws such treatment does not conflict. 



