30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



present losses, however, are as nothing compared to the pos- 

 sibilities of the future ; for it is only now reaching the better 

 cattle districts of the country. We are now outlining the 

 territory already infected, and we are attempting to unravel 

 some of the mysteries and contradictions connected with it. 

 Our people ought to know in what parts of the South it is 

 unsafe to buy cattle that are to be carried north ; they ought 

 to know the losses they will suflfer when they attempt to 

 stock their southern plantations with northern cattle ; and 

 they ought to realize that something must soon be done to 

 check the advance of this, the most fatal of all cattle dis- 

 eases. 



It has been my endeavor, in what I have said to you to- 

 <3ay, to convince you that there was need for a Veterinary 

 Division in the United States Department of Agriculture ; 

 and that this division, if it grapples with the work at hand, 

 will have something to do for several years to come. I trust, 

 also, that I may have been the means of increasing your in- 

 terest, however slight it may be, in our young and little 

 known profession, and the great work which it has be- 

 fore it. 



The Chairman. It has been gratifying to see so much 

 interest in this essay as has been manifested by your close 

 attention. It is a paper which will repay study when it is 

 printed in our Report. This question of diseases among do- 

 mestic animals is one of the most important now before this 

 country. We, here, do not feel it so much; we had our 

 turn at it a few years ago, and, as the lecturer has said, we 

 took most effective measures, and stamped out pleuro-pneu- 

 monia. It was a most heroic act on our part, and although 

 it was severely criticised by men who were interested in the 

 matter, the disease was stayed, and history has recognized 

 the importance of our action at that time. Dr. Salmon will 

 be very happy to answer any questions which you may de- 

 sire to ask in the development of this matter. And, to com- 

 mence it, I will ask him if he referred, in the last part of 

 his address, as I suppose he did, — although he did not give 

 the name of the disease, — to what is commonly denominated 

 <' Texas fever ?" 



