FARM ANIMALS 141 



to which susceptible cattle are inoculated with a 

 small quantity of blood of the cattle which have re- 

 covered from Texas fever. This inoculation gives 

 a mild form of the disease from which ninety-five 

 per cent, or more of the animals recover and are, 

 thereafter, immune. The importance of this method 

 is obvious when it is considered that all dairy- 

 men and beef raisers in the South are desirous of 

 improving the quality of their herds. In order to 

 do this they must import high-bred cattle from 

 the North and these cattle, being susceptible to 

 Texas fever, will take the disease and die in 

 seventy-five to ninty per cent, of the cases unless 

 previously vaccinated. Within the past few years, 

 the belief has gained ground that it is possible to 

 exterminate the tick and thus eradicate the disease 

 completely. Thus, in North Carolina, Louisiana, 

 Tennessee and elsewhere it has been shown that 

 by a simple rotation of pasture and cultivated 

 fields the ticks can be starved to death and cattle 

 entirely freed from them. In North Carolina the 

 State Veterinarian, at an expense of $6 per farm, 

 has entirely exterminated the cattle tick in ten 

 counties and placed this large area above the 

 quarantine line. The cattle tick constitutes a seri- 

 ous danger not only to all cattle in the South, 

 which have not become infested with the cattle 

 tick during calfhood, but to all northern cattle 

 taken south of the quarantine line without vacci- 

 nation. It also stunts all cattle which are badly 

 infested and delays their maturing so that it costs 

 more to feed them, preventing in many cases their 

 breeding until they are three or four years of age. 

 A considerable appropriation has been placed at 

 the disposal of the Bureau of Animal Industry to 

 use in co-operation with various southern states in 



