REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



In the endeavor to reduce the loss from bad eggs the department 

 advocates the production of infertile eggs; that is, eggs from hens 

 that are not allowed to run with male birds. It is estimated that the 

 losses from bad eggs amount to $45,000,000 a year, and that one-third 

 of this is caused by the formation of "blood rings" due to the de- 

 velopment of the germs in eggs by heat. If farmers and poultrymen 

 will produce infertile eggs, this part of the loss can be prevented, and 

 the losses can be further reduced by proper methods of handling and 

 marketing. What is known as the "loss-off" method of buying 

 eggs — that is, buying on a quality basis — is advocated, and cooperative 

 work to establish this method has been carried on in some of the 

 leading egg-producing States. Publications, including a poster, 

 have been issued showing the advantage of producing infertile eggs. 



THE ERADICATION OF ANIMAL DISEASES. 



Continued progress was made during the year in the systematic 

 work of eradicating certain diseases of live stock. As a result of 

 work which is being carried on in cooperation with State and local 

 authorities for the eradication of the ticks which transmit the con- 

 tagion of Texas fever of cattle, 22,827 square miles of territory in 

 the South were released from quarantine, and since the close of the 

 fiscal year 2,248 additional square miles have been released. The 

 total area freed from ticks and released from quarantine since the 

 beginning of this work in 1906 now amounts to 164,896 square miles, 

 which is nearly one-fourth of the total territory infested at the time 

 the work was begun. The pioneer work is naturally the hardest 

 part of the task, and it is believed that with adequate appropria- 

 tions more rapid progress can be made in the future. It is evident 

 that the days of the tick are numbered and that the South will soon 

 enter upon an era of the development of stock raising and will have 

 a large part in meeting the needs of our people for a greater supply 

 of meat. 



The work of eradicating scabies of sheep and cattle in the West, 

 which has been under way for many years, is nearing completion. 

 The area released from the sheep scab quarantine during the fiscal 

 year amounted to 9,177 square miles. 



An outbreak of dourine among horses appeared in Iowa early in 

 the summer of 1911 and has been entirely eradicated, although horses 

 involved in the outbreak had been as widely scattered as Texas, 

 Arkansas, and Canada. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



Further experiments in the vaccination of cattle to prevent tuber- 

 culosis confirm tlie previous conclusion that this method is not safe 

 and can not be recommended in the present stage of its development. 



