48 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



quality of cattle in the tick-infested re<2;ion. Since the summer of 

 1906 the Department has been enp;ao;ed in an effort, in cooperation 

 with state and local authorities, to exterminate these ticks. During 

 the past fiscal year, as a result of the eradication of ticks, there were 

 released from quarantine 57,518 square miles of territory, which is the 

 largest area released in any one year since the beginning of the work. 

 The total area so far released amounts to 129,611 square miles, an 

 area greater than the combined territory of the States of North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The States in which areas 

 have been released from quarantine are Virginia, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, 

 Oklahoma, Texas, and California. The work is also being carried on 

 in ^lissouri, Alabama, and Louisiana. 



In the sections that have been freed from ticks and released from 

 quarantine it is now practicable to introduce and raise a better class 

 of cattle, and the cattle in these regions are more thrifty and com- 

 mand substantially better prices, not only because of their better 

 condition but because they can be marketed without quarantine 

 restrictions. 



SCABIES OP SHEEP AND CATTLE IN THE WEST. 



For more than ten years the Department has been working in 

 cooperation with state authorities to eradicate the disease known as 

 sheep scab, which has heretofore been prevalent in the West. During 

 the fiscal year 390,000 square miles of territory under quarantine on 

 account of this disease were released, comprising the entire State of 

 Washington and parts of Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and 

 Colorado. It was found necessary to place a quarantine on the State 

 of Kentucky on account of the continued spread of this disease in 

 that State. At that time there was no efficient state law under which 

 the Department could cooperate in combating the disease, but the 

 last session of the Kentucky legislature passed an act creating a state 

 live-stock sanitary board with power to deal with infectious and 

 contagious diseases of animals, and arrangements have now been 

 made to carry on cooperative work in that State for the eradication 

 of sheep scab. 



As a result of similar work for the eradication of scabies of cattle 

 there were released from quarantine during the fiscal year 53,021 

 square miles, consisting of areas in Montana, Wj^oming, Colorado, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. 



In connection with the work for the eradication of scabies in sheep 

 and cattle, employees of the Bureau of Animal Industry made 

 52,749,920 inspections of sheep and 18,190,456 inspections of cattle, 

 and supervised 12,153,356 dippings of sheep and 1,336,829 dippings 

 of cattle. 



