78 ANNUAL KEPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OP AGEICULTUEE. 



Work for the development and improvement of the dairy indus- 

 try has been continued with good effect. Improvement in the quality 

 of market milk as a result of the efforts of the department and vari- 

 ous other agencies is very apparent. By means of cow-testing associa- 

 tions and encouraging dairy farmers to keep records of the feed and 

 production of their herds, the milk yield of many herds is being in- 

 creased and the cost reduced. Assistance has been given in establish- 

 ing creameries in sections previously without them and in which 

 there is a good prospect of success. 



In the work of eradicating the southern cattle ticks good progress 

 has continued and an additional area of 37,255 square miles has been 

 freed from ticks and released from quarantine, making a total of 

 253,163 square miles released since the work was begun in 1906. As 

 this work proceeds and its benefits become apparent, it is being more 

 heartily supported and pushed by the people. In the territory al- 

 ready freed of ticks work is being done for the building up of beef 

 cattle and dairy industries. 



The eradication of scabies of sheep and cattle in the West has been 

 brought still nearer to completion. 



The experimental work for the control of hog cholera, which has 

 been carried on for the past two years, has demonstra,ted that while 

 eradication in limited areas may be accomplished by means of inocu- 

 lation with protective serum and proper quarantine measures, any 

 general effort to eradicate this disease from the United States would 

 be a tremendous and expensive undertaking and would require more 

 effective State laws and organizations. This subject is discussed 

 more at length in another part of this report. 



FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE. 



In the latter part of August, 1914, the attention of the State 

 veterinarian of Michigan was called by local veterinarians to a dis- 

 ease somewhat resembling foot-and-mouth disease which had affected 

 two or three herds of cattle in Berrien County. After visiting the 

 locality he consulted an assistant inspector on the meat-inspection 

 force of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Detroit (in the absence of 

 the inspector in charge), and together, on September 3, they majie 

 an examination of the cattle, but failed to recognize the affection as 

 foot-and-mouth disease because the cases were old (having come un- 

 der the observation of local veterinarians about 10 days before), 

 because at the time there was a mixed infection which rendered 

 diagnosis difficult, and because of the mild tj^pe of the disease at tliat 

 time, the absence of lesions characteristic of that disease, and the 

 presence of lesions due to secondary invasion of other infections. In 

 other words, instead of the vesicles or watery blisters typical of foot- 

 and-mouth disease, there were present scabs and pus from necrotic 

 ulcers and the characteristic odor of necrotic stomatitis. The find- 

 ings reported by the assistant inspector to the bureau by telegraph 

 and also by letter were to the effect that the affection was not foot- 

 and-mouth disease, but that the lesions were characteristic of necrotic 

 stomatitis. A few scrapings forwarded to the pathological labora- 

 tory at Washington apparently were characteristic of a form of 

 stomatitis, but arrived in such a condition as to render it impossible 

 to make a diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease. On account of the 



