NOTICE OF JUDGMENT NO. 2178.
(Given pursuant to section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act.)
MISBRANDING OF CANNED PLUMS.
On February 8, 1912, the United States Attorney for the District 
of Kansas, acting upon a report by the- Secretary of Agriculture, 
filed in the District Court of the United States for said district a 
libel for the seizure and condemnation of 750 cases, each containing 
24 cans of plums, remaining unsold and in the original unbroken 
packages and in possession of Jett & Wood, Wichita, Kans., alleging 
that the product had been shipped on or about September 14, 1911, 
by the Oceana Canning Co., Shelby, Mich., and transported from the 
State of Michigan into the State of Kansas and charging misbranding 
in violation of the Food and Drugs Act. The product was labeled: 
(Principal label on-tin) "'Michigan' Brand—Packed by Oceana Can- 
ning Co." (Picture of large blue plum) "Successors,to Mikesell & 
Co., Shelby, Mich." (Label on back of tin) "'Michigan' Brand (Seal 
of the State of Michigan) Plums." (In large letters): "German 
Prunes" (Label on side of tin): "Guaranteed by us to conform 
with the National Food and Drug Act and the Pure Food Laws of 
all the states. Nothing finer than Michigan fruits—strawberries, 
raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, peaches, plums, apples."
Misbranding of the product was alleged in the libel for the reason 
that said product was labeled in such a manner and style as not 
sufficiently to forewarn the purchaser or consumer of the identity of 
the article, in that the design upon the label, consisting of a large 
blue plum, was so colored and conspicuous as to lead the purchaser 
or consumer to believe that the product was of the same variety and 
identical with that depicted by the pictorial design, and, further, 
that the words "German prunes" were so conspicuously placed upon 
the label and the letters used in said words were of such size and 
prominence as to lead the purchaser or consumer to believe that the 
product consisted of German prunes and not plums and said label 
was so printed, colored, and worded as to mislead and deceive the 
purchaser or consumer into the belief that the product consisted of
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German prunes when, in truth and in fact, it was a small variety of 
green native plum, exceedingly sour, without the characteristics of 
a prune, but differing in pits, size, and shape so materially from Ger- 
man prunes as a whole as to deceive and mislead the purchaser or 
consumer.
On March 18, 1912, the said Oceana Canning Co., claimant, hav- 
ing admitted the allegations in the libel, the court found that the 
goods were misbranded. It was further ordered by the court that 
upon payment of the costs of the proceedings by said claimant and 
the execution of bond in the sum of $1,000, the product should be 
released and delivered to said claimant.
W. M. HAYS, 
Acting Secretary of Agriculture.
WASHINGTON, D. C, January 7, 1913.
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