The validity of the bleaching of flour by chemical process was a question which engaged the attention of many official Co-operators during the spring and summer of 1912. Uddingston Society was prosecuted for a contravention of the Food and Drugs Acts because they had sold to a Food and Drugs inspector one pound of flour which had been bleached or oxidised by artificial means. The case was defended by the S.C.W.S., from whom the flour had been purchased, and at whose Regent mills it had been milled. Almost all the chemical and milling experts in the country gave evidence as witnesses on one side or the other, and the Sheriff before whom the case was heard was left with a mass of opposing technical evidence to unravel such as he had seldom had to face. Ultimately he found the case not proven and, contrary to expectation, the decision was not appealed from. The U.C.B.S., like most of the other Co-operative societies in Scotland, had been using a proportion of this chemically whitened flour, but in November of 1911, shortly after the seizure of the sample at Uddingston, they decided to write to the S.C.W.S. and inform them that no further deliveries of bleached flour could be accepted. Nothing further was heard of the controversy which had raged so fiercely in Hamilton Sheriff Court, however, and so it may be taken for granted that, whatever virtues or failings flour so treated may have had, injury to health could not be proved. A BREAD TEST. Although the committee of the Baking Society and their experts took every precaution and themselves made every test possible, so as to ensure that only products of the highest quality were sent out from the bakery, they did not always rest content with having done that, and one of the occasions when they took steps to get the unbiassed opinions of the customer societies arose shortly after the introduction of the cover-plate ovens into the bakery. They sent out samples of the bread produced by Scotch, draw-plate, and cover-plate ovens to every society customer, with a request that the societies should test the three different loaves and indicate their preference. Altogether 634 samples were sent out and 439 replies were received. Of these 47 per cent. favoured the bread baked in the cover-plate oven, 34 per cent. favoured the draw-plate bread, and 19 per cent. the bread baked in the Scotch oven. At the same time fourteen samples had been sent to a private firm at the request of the firm, and the results there were somewhat similar. This test seemed to establish the superiority of the cover-plate oven over either of the other two forms. ADVERTISING WORK.