In many different States soils have been examined. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it was found certain soils contain ingredients to produce the finest Cuban tobacco, and other soil regarded as useless was shown to be capable of producing certain rare plants. Every state should call for this kind of analytic help, until we make the United States the garden of the world.
XIX DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY ON PURE FOODS
THIS subject of the relative value of foods is one that interests every individual. The Department of Agriculture is making a brave effort to secure a law regulating interstate and international commerce, requiring that all foods sent from one state to another, or to foreign countries, shall be labeled for just what they are, and shall conform to the government standard in excellence.
For instance, renovated or "process" butter is now passing its ordeal. "Process" butter means that a large quantity of butter has been sent to a factory or elsewhere, and there worked together and colored to secure uniformity of appearance, and then placed on the market. The government requires that it shall be properly labeled. It is of less nutritive value than either oleomargarine or butterine. A government leaflet gives householders and merchants full directions for discovering the real value of anything called butter. Every farmer should secure a copy of the Agricultural Year-book.
I remember once, a number of years ago, at a table in London, discussing with some merchants from South America the subject of buying their goods in the United States instead of England.
One man from British Guiana said: "It is impossible to deal with the United States; they have no food-test laws, and we buy one thing and get another. Then take machinery and implements. The first three or four purchases will be all right, after which they put off on us shelf-worn goods which they could not sell at home."
When the government can put an official stamp on each article exported it will be good for the permanence of our export trade.
No such general law now exists, and the best our government can do is to certify that the goods comply with the standard of the country to which they are to be sent. It is believed that many of the preservatives used with food products are harmless to the human body, and a scientific test of this was conducted in December, 1902. The Agricultural Department called upon the young scientists of the colleges and universities to assist in settling this question. A picked body of students were supplied with the purest food to bring them to perfect condition, and soups, meats, vegetables, jellies, etc., containing preservatives claimed to be harmless will be given them, and as soon as a touch of dyspepsia is manifest the test will be dropped. It was doubtful whether football and baseball managers, not to mention such insignificant factors as professors and mothers, would consent that their favorites should be submitted to such experiments. But scientists are earnest seekers for truth, and enough subjects were readily found to make the trial.