40 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



urers located outside the State ; we also endeavored to secure 

 from the various druggists products of their own manufacture. 

 Not only the pure vanilla and other flavors were obtained, but 

 several of the imitations were found ; in a very few cases the 

 necessary branding indicated that it was an imitation product 

 but quite frequently — probably due to the fact that they were 

 old goods — the results of the analyses showed them to be a 

 rather inferior product. 



The newest phase of this statute, and one that has been treated 

 up to the time of taking these samples, in an entirely educational 

 way, is the Net Weight Law ; the opportunity has now been 

 given to judge how generally this statute is being complied 

 with, and the results of these collections — giving an opportunity 

 to note the labels and the particular language used, also to test 

 the truth of the statements regarding the quantity of the con- 

 tents — have been particularly gratifying. This requirement, 

 which is found in section 23, under chapter 119 of the Public 

 Laws of 191 1, that the quantity of the contents be placed on .ill 

 packages of food sold for more than five cents, has been almost 

 universally complied with ; in a few instances it has been 

 proven, when an explanation for such violation has been asked 

 for, that the goods were old or on hand prior to the time when 

 the law went into effect. 



It seems necessary to call attention particularly to a case of 

 misbranding, where the carton is labeled plainly with the words 

 "Extract of Vanilla" and with smaller type the language indicat- 

 ing that Vanillin colored with caramel had been added. On the 

 other side appears the words "Extract of Vanilla" and also the 

 word "Vanillin" in type nearly as large, while on the bottle the 

 label shows the words "Vanilla" and "Vanillin colored with 

 caramel", the words "Vanillin colored with caramel" in much 

 smaller type. This case, together with a few others that require 

 investigation, are still pending and are unsettled. 



