BUREAU or ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 231 



by Federal and State employees, even to a greater extent than when 

 the systematic dipjDing of cattle is first taken up in a county. For 

 this reason released areas are sometimes again placed under Federal 

 qiiaraiitine as a matter of economy. 



INTRODUCTION OF THE ZONE PLAN. 



State livestock sanitary officials, with the possible exception of one 

 or two States, have adopted and are putting into effect what is known 

 as the " zone plan," recommended by the bureau as being the most 

 effective and most satisfactory to cattle owners. This plan consists in 

 State officials designating by law, regulation, or order certain counties 

 or areas, contiguous to released area, in which active and systematic 

 dipping of cattle will be required during a certain year until the 

 work is completed in the State. It is found that in this way effort 

 can be concentrated and tangible results obtained in minimum time. 

 In addition it relieves county officials and cattle owners from embar- 

 rassment and constant agitation on the subject of eradicating cattle 

 ticks. Some time during the year preceding the time when the cattle- 

 dipping laws and regulations are to be enforced in a given zone pre- 

 liminary information is carried to rural communities by means of a 

 motion-picture outfit, equipped with a portable lighting plant, capable 

 of showing good, clear pictures and properly illuminating rural 

 schoolhouses. Appropriate films relating to agricultural subjects are 

 shown, and especially films showing the life history of the cattle tick 

 and the means found best adapted to eradicate the ticks. The motion 

 pictures are in constant demand and seem to be very effective in bring- 

 ing together practically the entire community for entertainment and 

 recreation and at the same time conveying to cattle owners and their 

 families some wholesome information about tick eradication and 

 improved livestock. 



SUPPRESSING LAWLESS OPPOSITION. 



The difficulties mentioned in last year's report as existing in Inde- 

 pendence County, Ark., due to local opposition to tick eradication, 

 have been satisfactorily adjusted, and it is expected that eradication 

 will be finally completed in that county during the present year. 



Early in the fiscal year there arose in Echols County, Ga., a con- 

 dition of defiance to State laws and regulations, necessitating drastic 

 action in providing State and Federal employees assigned to duty in 

 that county with means of defense. In spite of these precautions one 

 bureau employee was killed and another seriously wounded while on 

 official duty. The Department of Justice took vigorous action, with 

 the result that the two men alleged to be responsible for the crimes, 

 together with 19 others more or less implicated, all of them residents 

 of Echols County, were indicted in June by a Federal grand jury and 

 were placed under bond for trial in the Federal court. A detailed 

 statement of the troubles in Echols County is given in the annual 

 report of the Georgia department of agriculture for 1922. 



SHIPMENTS FROM QUARANTINED AREAS. 



The number of cattle of the quarantined area shipped under bu- 

 reau supervision to market centers for immediate slaughter was 

 616,204. The steady decline, as compared with former years, in the 



78007— AGR 1923 1 6 



