54 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
so on. So our men have to know the insect and have to know how 
to find it. ; ; 
Then those same sorts of questions come up with every disease. It 
is the same way with the Texas fever. There is a whole lot of ticks 
on the cattle in that quarantine district. We generally diagnose the 
infected cattle by the tick which carries Texas fever. ; 
Mr. Lams. Doctor, have vou had any of these inspectors in south- 
ern Virginia and eastern North Carolina, where that tick predominates? 
Mr. Satmon. We keep a man in Richmond and a man in Norfolk, 
and we have two men in North Carolina on the transportation routes. 
Mr. Lams. Right in that connection, is that tick trouble abating 
there since you have been operating in that neighborhood? 
Mr. Satmon. In some places it is. 
Mr. Lams. I want to keep that quarantine line from coming north. 
Mr. Satmon. So far our quarantine line has gone southward. That 
is, a great deal of the district which was infected at the time we 
started has been freed from it. 
Mr. Lams. I know. I saw you about that once. 
Mr. Saumon. Just there J] would like to say this. Of course we 
have been investigating the disease from a scientific point of view. In 
fact, when we began work with Texas fever there was nothing known 
about it except that cattle from somewhere in the Southern States 
coming north would spread a disease that would kill the cattle they 
came in contact with, but they did not know what districts they came 
from. They did not know how they spread it or how to prevent its 
spreading. We took up the disease, made a scientific investigation of 
it, and found a parasite in the blood which caused the disease. We 
found that parasite was carried from animal to animal by this tick, 
and we worked out the habits and natural history of the tick, so we 
knew what kind of regulations to make to control the disease. We 
have been trying for ten years to find something to kill the ticks. 
The Cuarrman. Will not that dipping process kill these ticks! 
Mr. Satmon. It was a long time before we could get anything that 
would kill the ticks. We thought two or three times we had some- 
thing that would do it, and that would mean a good deal, because if we 
coul “ the cattle in that quarantine district and kill all the ticks 
before they went out, then they could go anywhere without restric- 
tion. It would relieve our work a good deal and it would relieve the 
people who raised the cattle. 
The Cuatrman. I have heard of an oil that was put on them to kill 
these ticks. 
Mr. Satmon. During the last year we have found a crude petroleum 
which comes from the Beaumont district in Texas that has a very large 
proportion of sulphur in it, and it actually kills the tick without dam- 
aging the cattle. It is the only thing we have discovered that. will do 
it. That will be used very largely this year. 
_Mr. Lams. What is the technical name for that? 
Mr. Satmon. It is the Beaumont crude petroleum. 
My. Henry. The properties of that petroleum are different from 
the Pennsylvania petroleum, are they ? 
hey care ey it has a very large proportion of sulphur dis- 
solved in it. When we began dipping we used a petroleum product 
and tried to dissolve sulphur in it, but we were not able to dissolve 
any to amount to anything, and the Standard Oil people (who are sup- 
