32 MISSOURI AGRltUL'IUKAL REPORT. 



different sections of the State, things can be arranged so that no deputy 

 will have to travel any great distance and the extra cost of this work 

 will therefore amount to a comparatively small sum. I beg leave to ask 

 the approval of the Board to my plan to make an aggressive fight during 

 ilie coming year against hog cholera and sheep scab and other diseases of 

 hogs and sheep. The plan of the work will be to go in person or send a 

 deputy to investigate the outbreak at the point of origin of any car of in- 

 fected stock and give attention to proper notices of the existence of the 

 hog and sheep diseases from whatever source. An investigation of the 

 p.ature of the disease will be made, the necessary quarantine restrictions 

 enforced and all possible advice given the owner of diseased stock as to 

 the best methods of getting rid of the disease and disinfecting his prem- 

 ises. 



BLACK LEG. 



Black leg is somewhat prevalent over the State at the i)resent time, 

 but where preventive vaccination has been practiced there have been but 

 small losses. The preventive vaccination has proved a great success, and 

 cattlemen have been advised to use it freely. In order to encourage the 

 use of vaccine, the Veterinary Department has arranged to co-operate with 

 tlie United States Department of Agriculture in the distribution of vac- 

 cine throughout this State. The August bulletin of 1902 was principally 

 devoted to the subject of black leg, and in it was given the information 

 necessary for the stockmen to use in the prevention of the disease. While 

 two thousand extra copies of this bulletin were printed last August, the 

 supply is about exhausted. 



TICK FEVER. 



The plan of placing a quarantine on each l)uiicli of cattle within this 

 State, found to be infested with fever ticks, has worked out admirably 

 during the past year. There has been a large number of farms and 

 bunches of cattle fjuarantined in the permanently infested area in South- 

 west Missouri, and without any county or township quarantine, not a sin- 

 gle bunch of infested cattle originating in Missouri has reached any non- 

 infested territory. 



I do not think it advisable, with the exception of Thayer township, 

 for the Board to put a quarantine on any county or township in this State. 

 The principal reason is that the infected farms in Southwest Missouri are 

 somewhat scattered, and in order to quarantine, even the township in which 

 the infected farms are situated, a good deal of non-infected territory 

 must necessarily be included. It will require a great deal of an inspec- 

 tor's time to go to railroad points and inspect the cattle for shipment which 



