REPORT OF SECRETARY. I9 



Live Stock Inspection. — At your last annual meeting the Secretary 

 was authorized, by resolution, to discontinue the services of the live 

 stock inspector when in his judgment the services of the inspector 

 were no longer required. Upon the authority of this resolution and 

 at the urgent request of the State Veterinarian, I notified Dr. Robard, 

 the inspector, that his services would be discontinued after April i. 

 Early in June the State Veterinarian, after a personal investigation of 

 conditions in Southwest Missouri, recommended to the Executive Board 

 the appointment of an inspector to look after the Texas fever infection 

 in Southwest Missouri, and upon the recommendation of the State 

 Veterinarian, Mr. I. H. Collier of Christopher was appointed to that 

 position. Mr. Collier assumed the duties of his office on May 15, and 

 has been continued up to the present time. The table on another page 

 gives the number of cattle quarantined by Mr. Collier on account of Tex- 

 as fever during the year 1905. The figures show a very large increase 

 of the number of infested cattle above the previous year and indicates 

 the necessity for vigorous measures to prevent the spread of the in- 

 fested area in the future. Last year there was practically no infested 

 territory, the area being confined to a limited area in three or four town- 

 ships. This year the infestation has spread to 21 townships. All except 

 one, however, are found south of Joplin and west of a line drawn 

 north and south through Pimeville and Neosho. As long as Southeastern 

 Kansas, Northern Arkansas and Indian Territory are infested with fever 

 ticks, it will require diligence on the part of this State to keep the 

 infested areas completely under control. 



Nezv Legislation. — Your Board having been made by law guardian 

 of the agricultural interests of the State, it will be wise for you to take 

 such necessary steps as you think prudent that will bring about legis- 

 lation that will protect and promote agricultural development. I would 

 call your attention to what seems to me an urgent need for a law pre- 

 venting the fraudulent sale of adulterated human foods and stock feeds. 

 A law should be enacted along the line of the present fertilizer law that 

 would give ample protection to the people of the State. The develop- 

 ment of the dairy and poultry interests is causing the placing on the 

 market of a great many concentrated feeding stuflfs, and it is of ex- 

 treme importance that the farmers should have some safeguard against 

 adulterations of these high priced feeds, else the development of these 

 important industries may be greatly retarded. 



An important part of the work of this office is the gathering, com- 

 piling and publishing of statistical data in regard to crops and live stock. 

 While we think we have a system now established that is reasonably 

 accurate on an estimate basis, yet it would require but little cost to 



