GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 2.J 



ing. Take, for instance, blackleg, which affects our cattle 

 industry so severely. Through a careful investigation by the 

 men connected with this bureau, aided, of course, by the ex- 

 periment stations all over the country, it has been found that 

 we could put out a vaccine somewhat similar to the vaccine 

 used to combat smallpox or diphtheria, by which we could im- 

 munize cattle, and greatly reduce the effect of the disease. 

 Now the Department of Agriculture does that very thing. 

 Instead of paying, as you have to pay, for antitoxin, an 

 enormous sum, and which is almost prohibitive, the Depart- 

 ment is sending out doses of this vaccine with instructions for 

 administering it. During the last five years the Department has 

 sent out on the average 1,750,000 doses of this vaccine, or 

 whatever we may call it, per annum, for the treatment of 

 blackleg alone. As the result of this enormous distribution of 

 this material, and of other instructions that go with it, a loss 

 which was at one time from ten to twelve per cent, of the en- 

 tire amount of cattle grown has been reduced to one-twelfth 

 of one per cent. Now I maintain that that is coming right 

 down to the hard basis of fact and large usefulness. In the 

 same way the hog cholera has been combated. A vaccine has 

 been prepared and distributed which is greatly modifying the 

 extent of the disease. Take it in the case of Texas fever about 

 which a great deal has been said, and as the result of the study 

 which has been given to it we are now able to control the 

 spread of the disease. Take the sheep scab, with which the 

 majority of you are familiar. They have been studying 

 methods of treatment and control, and by the preparation of 

 a dip prepared from tobacco, sulphur, and lime, with which 

 you gentlemen are familiar, I think beneficent results have been 

 attained. These are the several things we have got to do if 

 we are going to control the diseases of our animals and the dis- 

 eases of plants. Now what is the result of these requirements 

 which are so much criticised? In 1899 there were 672,944 

 treatments. After that, as the result of the effectiveness of the 

 treatment the number swelled rapidly until in 1905 more than 

 seventeen million treatments were made. Now we have re- 

 turns from nearly six million of these treatments, and the 

 effective cases are figured up as 93.5 per cent., nearly a per- 

 fectly eft'ective treatment. We can control many of these dis- 

 eases if we simply stand together and exercise the best judg- 

 ment and best knowledge which is obtainable.. 



