Foods and household management

(2) If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when not so, or if the contents shall have been substituted in whole or in part, or if it fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any narcotic or habit-forming drug which it contains. (3) If it bear an incorrect statement of weight or measure. (4) If the package containing it or its label shall bear any statement, design, or device which is false or misleading in any particular. For a fuller discussion of the basis of pure food legislation and the essential features of the United States laws see Sherman's " Food Products," from which a part of the summary here given is drawn. The modern cold storage plant is of immense service in keeping food from the season of abundance to that of scarcity, but it may prove worse than useless if improperly managed. State and federal laws must control the management, and government inspection must be thorough. Cold storage would be a benefit to all under proper conditions of management, and the prices of many foods would be evenly adjusted by the maintenance of a steady supply. Many states now have laws regulating cold storage plants and there is every reason to hope that the abuses which have sometimes existed will be eliminated and the usefulness of cold storage extended. We may feel that the progress of the pure food movement has been most satisfactory, even though much more remains to be done. The states generally have either enacted new food laws, or revised their laws following the national law. Under the national law over 2000 prosecutions have already (1913) been decided- in favor of the government. Congress has passed an even more stringent law for meat inspection supplementary to the Pure Food Law with ample appropriation for its enforcement. Moreover, in 1913, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed outside experts to inspect meat-packing establishments throughout the country. This inspection is to check up the regular work being done by the Bureau of Animal Industry. The enforcing of federal and state laws has already largely stopped the misbranding of package foods as to weight or measure, cheap substitutions, the removal of valuable ingredients, and the sale of decomposed or tainted food derived from diseased animals. Remember that abuses can be kept down to any extent that we are willing to pay for. Taxpayers must appropriate money to pay for inspection, for laws, no matter how good, will not insure pure food unless carried out faithfully by an adequate number of specially trained inspectors. In the face of all these difficulties we must not be frightened into that state of mind where danger seems to lurk in every mouthful. We must use caution and common sense in our buying, and earnestly support every good movement for bettering conditions. There is a certain difference in quality even at a first class dealer's that one must learn to distinguish. One can of peaches will cost more than another, because the peaches are