56 Missouri Agricultural Beporl. 



that nothing could be accomplished this year. Reports show that cattle 

 carried mature ticks after September 1st in 18 lots in Oregon county, 

 43 in McDonald county and 26 in Newton county. The presence of 

 mature ticks on cattle after September 1st is almost certain indication 

 that the ticks will be in the same range next year. It can therefore be 

 readily seen that very little progress was made in any part of the State 

 in tick eradication work during the past year. 



This work consumed about one-third of the State appropriation avail- 

 able for the year's work and was carried on at the neglect of a great deal 

 of other work that was really of more importance. It does not seem 

 just to the rest of the State to spend so much time and money in tick 

 eradication and neglect other important lines of work. It seems that 

 it will therefore be necessary to adopt a different policy during the com- 

 ing year. The best course, probably, under present conditions, will be 

 for the Board to place these infested counties or portions of counties in 

 absolute quarantine and simply enforce the quarantine line and not at- 

 tempt any further tick eradication work until the cattle owners take a 

 more active interest in the matter. There ought to be no provision for 

 inspection for the reason that as long as cattle owners can move cattle 

 by inspection they will not take an active part in tick eradication. 



If in any of the quarantined counties there is an organization and 

 effective w^ork done, the State may then furnish inspectors to make sys- 

 tematic examinations of the cattle during the later part of the summer 

 to ascertain whether or not such territory can be released from quaran- 

 tine. 



The Texas fever quarantine regulations of this State, adopted in 

 1908, are now out of date, and I recommend that they be abolished and a 

 new proclamation issued quarantining only the infested areas within this 

 State. The Federal quarantine regulations are ample for the protection 

 of the State against the introduction of Texas fever from other states, 

 and without affording any further protection the State regulations simply 

 complicate the matter of shipping southern cattle. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



All tuberculosis eradication work has gone on in a most satisfactory^ 

 manner. On account of lack of force we were not able to keep up with 

 this work. We were continually over-run with applications coming from 

 the owners of permanent herds. We condemned enough cattle to cause 

 a deficit in the fund for paying for diseased animals. 



We tested the dairy cattle around Warrensburg and Hannibal and 

 were requested to make a test of all those around Independence. In the 



