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on the farm of J. R. Blackwell, Lees Summit, Jackson County, Missouri, 

 and also the same disease developed on the farm of O'Donnell & Son, 

 Gridley, Coffee County, Kansas. Both of the above-named parties, on 

 June 5, 1894, bought cattle in the Kansas City Stock Yards that had 

 been received that day from Ventura, California, and took them to their 

 farms." 



On account of these outbreaks of disease, apparently caused by Cali- 

 fornia cattle, Mr. W. E. Hill, an Inspector of this Bureau, was directed 

 to proceed to California and make an investigation as to the extent of 

 territory in that State which is permanently infected with the Texas 

 fever contagion. In the years intervening between 1886 and 1894 the 

 investigations of this Bureau had done very much to clear up the 

 mysteries surrounding this disease. It was shown that the contagion 

 was disseminated by the cattle-tick known as the Boophilus bovis, and 

 that the distribution of this tick in the eastern part of the United 

 States corresponded with the district permanently infected with Texas 

 fever. In other words, cattle coming from sections where this tick 

 existed would spread Texas fever, and those coming from sections where 

 the tick did not exist were found be harmless. Mr. Hill's reports, from 

 which I shall quote extensively, are, therefore, largely given up to a 

 determination of the districts in California in which the cattle-tick, 

 Boophilus bovis, is found, although he has also presented evidence to 

 show that the cattle in these districts disseminate Texas fever in exactly 

 the same manner as do the cattle from the tick districts of the States 

 bordering on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 



On December 20, 1894, Mr. Hill wrote from Capistrano: 



" I send you by this mail a sample of cattle-ticks, taken from cattle 

 this morning on the Boca La Plalla ranch, near this place, the cattle 

 belonging to Marcus Foster, who resides here. I regard them as the 

 genuine Boophilus bovis tick. This whole country along the ocean, on 

 the low, hilly, brushy land, seems to be infested with this tick. It is 

 said they were first brought to this country by Mr. O'Neil, of the Santa 

 Margarita ranch, six or eight years ago, on cattle that he brought from 

 Texas. I go to-day to Los Flores, on the O'Neil ranch, where the two 

 hundred and ninety head came from that arrived at Hymer Station, 

 about June 8th, and remained in the Berry pasture about two weeks. 

 There can be no doubt but that they were ticky when they left here, 

 and could have infected the Berry pasture in time to cause the out- 

 break that killed the Jackson cattle. They were shipped by J. L. 

 Heath." 



December 21st, he wrote from San Diego, California, as follows: 



" Have just arrived here, and by this mail I send you some more 

 ticks, obtained from cattle at Los Flores, on the Richard O'Neil ranch 

 (Santa Margarita). Having obtained more ticks at this point than I 

 needed to send you, I send one case of about one hundred and twenty- 

 five to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. The ticks I send 



