cle removed, and the berry unpolished. But the rub is just here: does the addition of glucose and talc constitute an adulteration; a violation of the pure food law? The Department of Agriculture has made a thorough investigation, as a result of which Secretary Wilson has filed a report in the course of which he says:

"It is the opinion of the Department that no coating of any kind can be used in the manner indicated if the product "be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed. It is held by the Department that rice treated in the manner indicated above with glucose and starch should be labeled in all cases with the name of the extraneous substances, as, 'Coated with glucose and starch.' In such declarations all of the food substances used for coating should be mentioned. Any coloring matter or other substances that may be employed to change the tint of the rice should be declared on the label. The question of the wholesomeness of paraffin, talc, or other non-food substances used is to be construed in such a way as to protect the health of those most susceptible to their influences. Rice is a diet often prescribed for those suffering from impaired digestion. The use of paraffin in such

cases is at least of questionable propriety, and in the opinion of the Department it should be excluded from food products."

Think of sending a child to the corner grocery store to lisp some such order as this to the clerk: "Pleath, my mamma wanth a nickleth worth of rith coated with glucoth and starth." There isn't at jury in the country but would exonerate the child for losing the nickel or buying "all-day suckers," instead.

Arkansas rice men are going to be the first to come to the rescue of the family errand runners, the corner grocer and incidentally a goodly proportion of the rice eaters of the country. During the past summer a company was organized at Hickory Ridge and almost five thousand acres of new rice lands were opened up, all the crop from which is to be run through a mill at Hickory Ridge and put on the market in an unpolished condition. Some day the Department of Agriculture is going to stop the sale of glucosed and talced rice, unless explicit labels are used, and the Arkansas folks believe there is a lot in being in on the ground floor.

Incidentally it may be added that Arkansas raises more bushels to the acre than any other state or country in the world of this cereal that feeds more people than all the corn and oats and wheat put together.

This is shown in the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture. Arkansas raises more rice per acre than any other state, and rice is practically the only food that passes the lips of nearly sixty per cent of all the people of the earth from one year's end to the other and is the main diet of near seventy-five per cent

of them. Rice has a greater importance than is often realized.

So, one of the lesser states of this great commonwealth - Arkansas-stands preeminently in the front rank of one of the

world's most important cereal industries. Arkansas is not to be sniffed at, to be treated with scorn. It is to be regarded with considerable respect. Arkansas is a "coming" state.

457

life is snuffed out. Almost before he has wiggled his last wiggle he is going through a bunch of machinery and loses his identity.

The Mills was not originally designed for such work. She was built for a suction dredge, and later converted into a freighter. She now looks more like a species of torpedo-boat destroyer than a factory or a tramp steamship, and might prove a successful bluff in war time. But her "innards" are different. There are no magazines full of explosives, and she is not built to travel like an express train through the water.

But she is built to carry a great bulk of freight. She can carry supplies sufficient for her own needs and to help out the fishing

of a steamer, which would carry supplies to the industrious fishermen and relieve them of their catch, the catch to be converted into oil and fertilizer on board while the ship is under way. A steamer was especially equipped for the purpose.

The Mills, as this vessel is named, has proved to be one of the most successful enterprises ever undertaken by a fishing concern. Thanks to it the little menhaden has undergone his commercial conversion before he realizes what has happened to him. He swims gaily about in the salt sea among his fellows, suddenly finds himself yanked out with a few million of his brothers and sisters and other relatives, and dumped into a great gloomy cavern. And then, still bewildered, he is catapulted into another big cavern and his

DUMPING MENHADEN INTO PENS AT A RHODE ISLAND FERTILIZER

FACTORY.

The fish are thrown in by the thousand. It is a

busy industry.

boats. Her crew drink water distilled from the sea by the latest approved apparatus. Her factory department can go night and day and turn out immense quantities of oil and fish refuse, for all of which she has ample storage facilities, and last but not least, she can store fifteen thousand barrels of food fish.

This latter feature is one of her most valuable ones. For when the fishermen haul in their nets, cast for menhaden only, they haul forth not only the oily product, but great quantities of food fish. Blue fish, sea trout, sea bass, flounders, white fish and other edible species of food fish are gathered in indiscriminately with the meek and lowly but much sought-after mossbunker. Such fish are of no use for oil production, and while they would be all right to grind up as fertilizer, they have a far greater value as food. So they are packed in barrels, and kept on ice in cold storage, and low temperatures being produced by the ship's own plant, until a few days later they are unloaded in port, and find their way to the table.

The Mills has two elevators, one on either side just forward of amidships, and when the little fishing steamers tie up alongside, she can handle twenty-four thousand barrels of fish in twenty-four hours. This capacity, however, is not often, if ever, attained. From the elevators the fish drop into the belt weighers, which not only weigh them, but convey them to the vaults in the hold. From there they are carried to the cookers. Then the fish, who by this time has passed from this earth, or water, and don't care what happens to his carcass, is passed through four screw presses,

which squeeze all the oil and moisture out of him. The oil runs through pipes to the oil room between decks, and is there separated from the water. The oil goes to the storage tanks, which have a capacity of four thousand barrels, and the water flows through other pipes to be condensed into steam. So the little mossbunker is not only required to give up all his oil, his skin and bones and flesh for commercial purposes, but is actually required to help supply the steam with which his relatives are annihilated, and the steamer propelled.

The squeezed body is sent to conveyors which have blowers attached, and the scrap is sent flying into automatic bagging machines, drying as it goes in a few seconds, and bagged at the rate of five tons an hour.

When the vessel has taken on a full cargo, she races to port and unloads, takes on fresh supplies for the men employed by the company, and returns to her work. So instead of bringing the product to port, and wasting much time in the course of the year, she brings the finished product.

The Mills has a wireless equipment, too, and can keep in touch with not only the vessels of the fleet, but with headquarters on shore as well. If a fishing boat has an extraordinary catch and gets its cargo before the Mills is due, a flash through the air will take this floating factory to her, relieve her of her burden, and permit her to load up again.

The menhaden is a clannish fish. It usually travels in schools and the school may extend over a space sixty miles wide. Of course when a school appears, it is easy to dip the fish up by the million.