38 FOOD LAWS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



stuffs act, 1906, renders such a procedure obligatory. As in proceed- 

 ings under the sale of food and drugs act, the certificate of the analyst 

 is sufficient evidence of the facts therein stated, unless the defendant 

 makes a specific request for the appearance of the analyst. 



It is forbidden to sell any feeding stuff without an invoice unless 

 there is a reasonable excuse therefor. Such invoices shall not be 

 " false to any material particular to the prejudice of the purchaser." 

 Neither shall the feeding stuff contain an article dangerous to cattle 

 or poultry nor have added to it "any ingredient worthless for feeding 

 purposes and not disclosed at the time of the sale." 



An excellent provision limits the time within which a prosecution 

 may be brought "for an offense of causing or permitting an invoice 

 or description to be false in any material particular." No prosecu- 

 tion can be instituted ' ' after an expiration of three months from the 

 date when the invoice was received by the purchaser." The rapidity 

 with which cases must be carried to the courts under the sale of food 

 and drugs acts is evidenced by section 19 of the 1899 act, wherein it 

 is provided as follows : 



Time for proceeding and regulation as to summons. (1) When an y article of food or 

 drug has been purchased from any person for test purposes, any prosecution under 

 the sale of food and drugs acts in respect of the sale thereof, notwithstanding anything 

 contained in section 20 of the sale of food and drugs act, 1875, shall not be instituted 

 after the expiration of 28 days from the time of the purchase. 



A number of regulations have been issued under the fertilizers and 

 feeding stuffs act, 1906. They contain much of interest and value, 

 dealing as they do with the practical side of the administration of 

 this act. For example, the fertilizers and feeding stuffs (methods of 

 analysis) regulations, 1908, deal with the details of analysis of feed- 

 ing stuffs and discuss the preparation of the sample, determination of 

 moisture, determination of oil, and determination of albuminoids. 

 Such methods are official and especially desirable because they give 

 a standard which is used by each of the analysts, thus producing com- 

 parable results. These methods have their counterpart in the meth- 

 ods of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. 1 



The fertilizers and feeding stuffs (sampling, etc.), regulations, 1906, 

 dated December 27, 1906, deal more in details relative to the methods 

 of sampling. The difficulty of procuring satisfactory samples of 

 feeding stuffs is well recognized, and standard methods are particu- 

 larly useful because of the greater ease of obtaining uniform analyti- 

 cal figures. 



Another regulation which works for uniformity of interpretation 

 is known as the fertilizers and feeding stuffs (limits of error) regu- 

 lations, 1910, dated January 25, 1910. These limits of error apply to 

 the statement of the percentages of oil and albuminoids as found in 



i U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Chemistry Bui. 107, Revised. 



