134 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



made to determine whether hogs can contract tuberculosis through 

 eating such infected rats and mice. 



MISCELLANEOUS WORK. 



Various miscellaneous tasks and investigations were carried out 

 during the year, such as testing suspected material for foot-and- 

 mouth disease, testing the potency of commercial tuberculin, studying 

 the relative food value and digestibility of raw, pasteurized, and 

 boiled milk for unweaned animals, providing sera and other mate- 

 rials for the bureau's Washington laboratories, etc. 



The usual farm operations were conducted and a large number of 

 small experiment animals raised. 



EXPERIMENTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS IN LIVE-STOCK PRODUC- 

 TION IN CANE-SUGAR AND COTTON DISTRICTS. 



The experiments and demonstrations in live-stock production in 

 the cane-sugar and cotton districts of the United States have been 

 continued under the direction of the committee consisting of William 

 A. Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, chairman ; B. H. 

 Rawl, Chief of the Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, and 

 W. R. Dodson, director, Louisiana experiment station, and director 

 of extension service, Louisiana State University. 



Of the $60,000 appropriated by Congress for this work, $39,300 

 was allotted for buildings, equipment, live stock, and the maintenance 

 of the farm at New Iberia, La., and $20,700 was devoted to the ex- 

 tension and demonstration work. 



The farm of 500 acres deeded by the State of Louisiana to the 

 Department of Agriculture is operated in four units, one devoted to 

 horses and mules, one to beef cattle, one to hogs, and one to dairy 

 cattle and hogs combined. This work is in charge of Dr. C. E. 

 Mauldin. 



Further progress has been made in the erection of buildings, which 

 include an office building, 3 cottages for employees, 6 houses for 

 laborers, 3 barns, 8 silos, a tool shed, a jack shed, a hog-feed house, 

 13 hog cots, and a pump house. A pneumatic water plant has also 

 been installed, which supplies water to all pastures, lots, and build- 

 ings. 



Live-stock purchases include a breeding jack, a Hereford bull, a 

 Jersey bull, a Duroc-Jersey boar, and 75 head of feeder steers. The 

 live stock has been further added to by natural increase. 



The first year's experiment, comparing the relative merits of mules 

 and brood mares as work animals for southern sugar-cane farm con- 

 ditions, was carried on with six high-grade " sugar mules " and nine 

 grade mares showing Percheron, Shire, Belgian, and roadster breed- 

 ing. The mules consumed less feed and performed more days of 

 work at less cost, but considering the foals dropped, the mares were 

 found to earn $32.19 each more than the mules. If the raising of 

 work stock can be introduced successfully into the South, it will mean 

 the saving of several million dollars annually which is now paid to 

 outside markets for mules. 



An experiment has been begun to determine the cost of maintain- 

 ing a beef-producing herd and to test the relative profit from spring 



