April, '21] deputy: federal inspection work, texas 179 



seed out of this county. Incidently, there were other quarantines 

 against other Mexican products that were to be enforced. In order to 

 accompHsh this multitude of duties, it has been necessary to inspect 

 all passenger traffic and the baggage pertinent thereto as well as all rail- 

 way cars, fiunigating a large percentage of the latter. 



The inspection of the railway cars from Mexico had to be performed 

 in Mexico because the functionings of the Mexican and American 

 Customs Departments are such that, when once a car has crossed the 

 international boundary, it is supposed to have legally entered the coun- 

 try, and the regression of the same is nothing short of the work of a day. 

 The initiation of this mode of inspection was an onerous task, indeed, and 

 many a ■v\Tench was thrown into the machinery of inspection by unin- 

 formed Mexicans who could not understand why the entry into the 

 States of a few stray cotton seed in the cracks of railway cars should be 

 objected to; nor could they see by what manner of logic we could pre- 

 sume to make such inspections in Mexico. So presumptuous did the 

 men performing the work appear to them and so odious the requirements 

 of the regulations that they straightway gave the men engaged in the 

 same the name "Picudo," meaning in Spanish according to their 

 application, "long nosed, nosey individual." Nor was this the only 

 indication of a lack of co-operation for the American shippers were of 

 the mind at first that the inspection was too exacting and that the regu- 

 lations were too stringent. Finally, however, by diligently explaining 

 the need for the inspections and by fair treatment of each case according 

 to its merits, the inspectors caused the work to gradually gain in favor, 

 until now it is indulgently tolerated if not particularly sought after. 



The inspection of a car is after all a dry matter-of-fact proposition 

 that does not readily lend itself to a colorful, attractive description. 

 In a word it consists of jumping into the door of a car and looking into 

 all of the available cracks for cotton seed. But surprising it is how adept 

 the men become at finding, in a short time, all of the cotton seed con- 

 tamination that a car contains. Adept they must be too when it is 

 remembered that at times it falls to the lot of one man to inspect 

 as many as ninety cars in a day. Disposing of an empty car is a com- 

 paratively easy task for it is either free from contamination and is 

 certified to cross or else it is fouled with seed and entry is prohibited until 

 such a time as the shipper has had it cleaned to the satisfaction of the 

 inspector. It is not until cars containing cargoes are found to be con- 

 taminated with cotton seed that difficulties are experienced. If such a 

 car containing ixtle, lead, beer, or other such free shipping article, 

 transferring the same under supervision is a small task. On the other 

 hand, if the cargo happens to be bulk material such as ore, bone, or bat 



