512 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



that Texas fever is can-ied nortli only by the cattle tick, and the 

 exchision of this parasite fi-om the noninfected territory has in every 

 instance been found a certain method of excluding Texas fever. 

 The regulations governing the movement of cattle from below the 

 quarantine line are made yearly by the Secretaiy of Agriculture, 

 and they define the boundary of infected districts. The infected 

 area as now determined includes the territory south of an imaginaiy 

 line wliich commences on the Atlantic coast on the Virginia-North 

 Carolina bonndaiy and passes in a westerly direction through Vir- 

 ginia. North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, along the northern 

 border of Arkansas, and through Oklahoma and the western part of 

 Texas to the Rio Grande and the Mexican border, whence it passes 

 along the southern boundaiy of New Mexico and Arizona and across 

 the lower portion of California to the Pacific slope. (See PI. LI.) 

 In consequence of the enforcement of these quarantine regidations, 

 Texas fever has been practically prevented in the noninfected dis- 

 tricts for several years, and little or no hardship has been caused to 

 stockmen handling cattle from the infected areas. Previous to the 

 adoption of these regulations the tick-infested district was rapidly 

 extending northward, but since the quarantine line was established 

 and rational regulations enforced it has gi'adually been moved farther 

 south. This problem of still further reducing the infected area is of 

 the greatest importance to the cattlemen of the South — in fact, to 

 those on both sides of the line — and one which is receiving special 

 consideration by this department as well as by many of the interested 

 States. 



TICK ERADICATION. 



Systematic cooperative work by the Federal Government and the 

 aflfected States for the eradication of the cattle ticks which transmit 

 Texas fever was begun in the summer of 1906 under authority given 

 by Congress in the appropriation act for the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. The first Federal appropriation for the fiscal year ended June 

 30. 1907, was $82,500, and for the fiscal year 1908 an appropriation 

 of $150,000 was made. Annually since then $250,000 has been appro- 

 priated by Congi-ess for the continuation of the work. Funds have 

 also been provided by States and counties. 



The original infected area amounted to 741,515 square miles. Of 

 this territory there has been released from quarantine as a result of 

 the Avork above mentioned 147,648 square miles (up to Nov. 1, 1911). 

 In other words, about one-fifth of the area has been freed from ticks 

 in a little over five years. 



Great improvement has already resulted fi*om this work in the 

 released territoiy. More cattle are being raised, and a better grade 

 of breeding stock is being introduced; calves grow faster, and cattle 

 put on flesh more rapidly during the grazing season and go into the 



