

BUEEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 21 



Departments of the Government which are interested, and it is hoped 

 that some practical measure will be evolved. 



INCREASE IN MEAT INSPECTION. 



The number of cities where meat inspection is conducted has been 

 increased by 13 per cent during the year; the number of carcasses 

 inspected at the time of slaughter increased by 2,300,000. This, of 

 course, means that the expense of the inspection is also increasing. 

 However, meat inspection is a service of great value to the country, 

 protecting consumers from diseased meats and maintaining the repu- 

 tation of our animal products in both home and foreign markets. At 

 present the field is not covered. There are many abattoirs asking for 

 inspection to which the service can not be extended. The work must 

 therefore continue to grow for some years, but arrangements should 

 soon be made to inspect all meat shipped from one State to another. 

 Until this is done the objects in view when the service was established 

 have not been entirely accomplished. 



INSPECTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS FOR EXPORT. 



At the last session of Congress provision was made for the inspec- 

 tion and certification of dairy products intended for exportation. 

 The regulations for carrying this measure into effect have been made 

 and the inspection will soon be commenced. The cost of this inspec- 

 tion can not be estimated in advance, but it will necessarily increase 

 the Bureau expenditures, though not largely, considering the benefit 

 that should accrue. At a time when butter substitutes, renovated 

 butter, and all grades of dairy and creamery butter are exported from 

 this country, it is necessary for the protection of our pure butter in 

 the markets of the world that there should be a proper official inspec- 

 tion and certification before the goods leave this country. Practically 

 the same may be said in regard to cheese. The trade is large and 

 increasing, and is entirely worthy of this degree of Government super- 

 vision. Whatever the cost may be, therefore, it is an expenditure 

 wisely made, and one which will be of assistance to the dairy indus- 

 try. It is the intention to extend this inspection gradually, first cer- 

 tifying to the better grades of pure butter and allowing other grades 

 to go upon their merits, but later perhaps marking all grades. 



STATE RESTRICTIONS ON INTERSTATE CATTLE TRAFFIC. 



Inspection laws and regulations are enforced in a few States, which 

 duplicate the inspection made by this Bureau, of animals that are 

 shipped from one State to another, and for such State inspection fees 

 are demanded which constitute a serious burden on this branch of 

 interstate commerce. The State inspection and tax is applied to live 

 stock which is simply in transit across the territory of the State as 

 well as to that which is destined to remain within its borders. It is 

 plain that the imposition of such taxes on the live-stock traffic by a 

 few States may be followed by the general adoption of this method of 

 raising revenue, and that this would work to the great disadvantage 

 or possibly to the ruination of the stock industry in sections of the 

 country which are remote from market. It would be next to impossi- 

 ble, for instance, to ship cattle from Massachusetts to California, if 

 every intermediate State whose territory was crossed en route should 



