114 



ANNUAL REPOETS OF DEPAETMENT OF AGKICULTURH. 



additional territory. The following table shows the territory re- 

 leased during the past fiscal year : 



Areas released from quarantine as a result of eradicating cattle ticks, fiscal 



year 1919. 



During the year 47,843,791 inspections or clippings were made of 

 cattle for the eradication of ticks as against 34,927,959 in the jDre- 

 ceding year. There were in operation 33,789 cattle dipping vats 

 wdiere cattle Avere dipped under Federal or State supervision to rid 

 them of ticks. 



A great deal of advance work pertaining to the construction of 

 dipping vats and preparing counties and localities for regulatory 

 tick-eradication activities in the near future w^as conducted with a 

 view to proper organization for taking up and carrying on the 

 w^ork in new areas. Effectual cooperation has come from many 

 sources and interests. 



Until 1916 what is known as the local-option system was fol- 

 lowed in nearly all States cooperating in tick eradication. Under 

 this plan the systematic dipping of cattle every 14 days (which is 

 necessary for the extermination of the parasite) could not be begun 

 in a county until after an election had been called and held and a 

 majority of the voters in the county had expressed themselves in 

 favor of driving out the ticks. This plan was found to work well 

 up to a certain point. That point was when the remaining counties 

 would not vote for tick eradication and became a menace to the tick- 

 free counties wdiich were being stocked with purebred cattle not 

 immune to tick fever. Mississippi affords an example of how this 

 condition Avas overcome. When 31 counties stood as an obstacle 

 t^ further progress the farmers and live-stock men of the tick-free 

 areas induced the legislature to enact a State-wide law requiring 

 county officers within a certain time to provide dipping vats, dipping 

 material, and men to supervise the dipping of all cattle every 14 

 days from April to November, inclusive, in 1917. The result was that 

 the entire State was released from quarantine on December 1 of that 

 year. 



Observing the good results in Mississippi, Louisiana enacted simi- 

 lar legislation, which became effective April 1, 1918. Little opposi- 

 tion was met and such good work w^as accomplished that on Decem- 

 ber 1 of the same year 29 counties and parts of several other counties, 

 in all an area of 23,492 square miles, were released from quarantine, 

 and the work is so far advanced in all remaining quarantined areas 

 that their early release seems assured. 



Texas also has enacted a State-wide law, but because of the size of 

 the State and the large tick-infested area a different plan has been 



