vegetables have extended the need for U. S. standards for more products. 
Jt is the plan of the Department to provide such standards as the demand 
increases and time permits. 
THE INSPECTION SERVICE 
Most of the preceding discussion pertains to the history and development 
of U. S. standards by the Fruit and Vegetable Branch of the Production and 
Marketing Administration and its predecessors. The discussion that follows 
will take up the practical application of the standards. 
As previously stated, the inspection service has been active since 1918 when 
Congress provided for inspection at receiving markets; 4 years later, in 1922, 
Congress provided for extending the service to shipping points. At the present 
time, Federal inspection offices are maintained in 54 of the larger cities through- 
out the country and all 48 States cooperate with the United States Department 
of Agriculture in rendering service to growers and shippers at shipping points. 
Shipping-Point Inspection 
The shipping-point inspection service is maintained in the various States by 
means of cooperative agreements between the Federal Government and some 
State agency. The cooperating State agency is generally the State department 
of agriculture, although in a few States it is with some other agency, such as 
the State college of agriculture. Agreements are now in force in all the States, 
and shipping-point inspection is available to financially interested parties in 
practically all commercial-producing districts (fig. 3). 
Figure 3.—Federal-State inspector inspects potatoes in a partly loaded car at a North 
Dakota loading station. 
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