guarantee that the product cured by them would come within the limit pre- 

 scribed in Decision 76, and buyers were unwilling to stand in the breach 

 between producers and distributing merchants. The burden of responsibility 

 rested on producers and they did not feel able to bear it. They claimed that 

 fruit of the color and quality required for consumption, could not be produced 

 in this State which did not show on chemical examination, if the test was 

 made while in the raw state, an excess of sulphur dioxid, over thirty-five-one- 

 thousandths of one per cent. The unit fixed by Decision 76 was, in their 

 opinion and in the opinion of distributors, prohibitive. 



A New Regulation. The Department of Agriculture, appreciating the 

 situation as it was presented to Secretary Wilson, issued a new decision on 

 February 28th, this year, known as "Food Inspection Decision 89," as an 

 amendment to Decision 76, the full text of which may be interesting : 



"Amendment to Food Inspection Decision 76, relating to the use in foods 

 of benzoate of soda and sulphur dioxid : 



' * The question of the addition to food of minute quantities of benzoate of 

 soda and of sulphur dioxid will be certified immediately by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to the Referee Board of consulting scientific experts. 



"Pending determination by the Referee Board of the wholesomeness or 

 unwholesomeness of these substances, their use will be allowed under the 

 following restrictions : 



"Benzoate of soda, in quantities not exceeding one-tenth of one per cent, 

 may be added to those foods in which generally heretofore it has been so used. 

 The addition of benzoate of soda shall be plainly stated upon the label of each 

 package of such food. 



"No objection will be made to foods which contain the ordinary quantities 

 of sulphur dioxid, if the fact that such foods have been so prepared is plainly 

 stated upon the label of each package. 



"An abnormal quantity of sulphur dioxid placed in food for the purpose 

 of marketing an excessive moisture content will be regarded as fraudulent 

 adulteration, under the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, and will be pro- 

 ceeded against accordingly. 



"Food Inspection Decision No. 76, issued July 13, 1907, is hereby amended 

 accordingly." 



The Referee Board. The fruit industry was by this amendment still left 

 in a position of uncertainty and in a demoralized condition. Growers held 

 meetings, made appeals to the Department through the delegation in Congress, 

 and finally to President Roosevelt. Acting with his accustomed promptness, 

 the President took steps to create what was denominated a "Referee Board" 

 to which matters connected with the dried fruit industry, theretofore left with 

 the "Bureau of Chemistry and the Agriculture Department" for determina- 

 tion, were to be submitted. 



The Referee Board was constituted by appointment of five eminently 

 scientific men, of extensive experience in chemistry and pathology. Its 

 personnel is : 



Dr. Ira Remsen, chairman, president Johns-Hopkins University, Balti- 

 more; Prof. Russell H. Chittenden, Yale University, New Haven; Prof. John 

 H. Long, Northwestern University, Chicago ; Prof. Alonzo E. Taylor, Uni- 

 versity of California, Berkeley; Dr. C. A. Harter, Special Inspector of Foods, 

 New York City. 



The high character and standing of this board gives confidence to those 

 engaged in the fruit industry. It is believed that the importance of the 



