24 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



head. Basing the calculation upon average annual shipments this 

 represents a saving every year equal to three times the cost of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry and almost equal to the annual expenses 

 of the entire Department. 



Texas fever. — Texas fever among cattle was got under control. The 

 disease had occasioned heavy losses and had baffled all efforts at 

 ])reventiou except by strict, quarantine against Texas cattle at certain 

 seasons and under certain conditions. Its appearance was attended 

 witli considerable mystery. Stockmen and veterinarians alike had 

 been watching it closely for more than twenty years, and all were 

 puzzled by some of the facts observed. The solution of the most 

 important question in the connection is told in the report of the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry for 1890, as follows : 



It has long been suspected l)y cattle owners that tlie appearance of the disease in 

 Northern cattle was in some way connected with the ticks distributed by .Southern 

 cattle. This hypothesis has, hoWever, been generally discredited by scientific men, 

 and indeed the evidence in favor of it was very slight and intangible. It seemed, 

 however, worthy of investigation, and the result has been to obtain indisputable 

 evidence that the disease i« produced by ticks from Southern cattle. 



Ticks taken from Southern animals and placed upon pastures which coiild have 

 been infected in no other way so infected these grounds that susceptible cattle 

 placed upon them contracted the disease in the same length of time and were as 

 seriously affected as were other susceptible cattle placed upon pastures in company 

 with Southern cattle. Again, young ticks that were hatched from the eggs of largo 

 ticks picked from Southern cattle were i)laced upon susceptible animals and i)roduced 

 the disease. 



Establishment of the Weather Bureau. — The Weather Bureau was estab- 

 lished as a part of the Department service in 1891 by transfer of the work 

 from the War I)ei)artment. Prof. Mark W. Harrington was appointed 

 chief and organized the new branch in its present quarters at Twenty- 

 fourth and M streets N"W., Washington, D. C. The necessary substa- 

 tions of the War Department Signal Service throughout the country 

 were turned over to him. Six hundred new stations were added within 

 a short time, bringing the total up to 1,200, and in three months the 

 volunteer observers had increased to 2,200. Plans were made and put 

 in execution as rapidlj' as possible for increasing the usefulness of the 

 Bureau to commerce and agriculture by extending the system of frost 

 and storm signals and otherwise reaching all classes of the people. 

 Local forecast officials were appointed in more than twenty cities and 

 they were directed to give out warnings for their localities based on 

 their information as related to local conditions. The cost of the service 

 for the first year was 8861,810.83. 



Experiments and Improvements. — In tlie Fifty-first Oongress 170,000 

 was appropriated for irrigation experiments in the region from Dakota 

 to Texas along the eastern base of the Rocky Mtmntains. Hundreds of 

 artesian wells were sunk, and the problem of the use of the underflow 

 was considered, though not investigated, and a report on the whole 

 subject was made in 1892. 



