HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 181 
large cargo of corn should arrive on the other side after havin 
received the Government certificate as of a certain pe ehould 
arrive in such a condition as to indicate it ought to have been 
graded in that way 
Tue CuarrMAN. The Government must be held responsible? 
Mr. Covitxe. A reflection would be cast upon the whole Govern- 
ment inspection. That is simply one of the practical difficulties. 
The Cuairman. Do Ragland France, or Germany inspect? 
Mr. Covitie. They do not export any grain. 
The Cuarrman. Things they do export, not the grain alone, from 
one country to the other. Is there any law in those countries under 
which the government can inspect these exports of grain? 
Mr. Covitise. They do inthe Argentine. I believe their inspection 
has not yet been made a Government inspection. There is optional 
inspection, but I am not positive whether it is a governmental inspec- 
tion or an inspection of an organized company. I believe it is an 
optional Government inspection. 
Mr. GatLoway. It would cost about $1,000,000 to inspect the grain, 
it is estimated. 
Mr. Bowrs. I find no such bill has been introduced in the House. 
This bill I had reference to I find has been introduced in the Senate. 
It has come through the mail to me, and I simply wanted to get some- 
body’s opinion about it; that is the reason I asked it. 
The CHarEMaN. You have not made much progress in this investi- 
gation? 
Mr. Covirue. We have make very distinct progress. We are in 
communication with half a dozen chambers of commerce. Under the 
fear of a national inspection bill I believe they will adopt the methods 
that we have suggested to them for an improvement of their inspec- 
tion. 
Mr. Gattoway. A thing that seems to worry the people at the ports 
of entry is that it will introduce some politics in the thing if it becomes 
a governmental function. 
Mr. Covitiz. Taking up the second subject of inquiry in the office 
of the Botanical Investigations, that of poisonous plants, I wish to call 
your attention to a discovery made during the past year which is 
likely to be of considerable importance to the range country. We 
have been investigating the subject of loco weed, which for years 
has baffled the investigations of chemists, botanists, and owners of 
live stock. The investigation was carried on in Colorado and in Mon- 
tana—more particularly in Montana. Tosum up the thing in a word, 
we found that a large part of what was attributed to poisoning by loco 
weed was caused by a small worm known as a stomach worm, which 
interfered with the entire operation of the animal and brought about 
these symptoms, which are either identical with a true loco disease or 
are the true loco disease. 
That portion of our inquiry puts this matter in the hands of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry, which is now going ahead with the inves- 
tigation of this stomach worm, and will, I-believe, be able to provide a 
cure for hundreds of thousands of sheep in the northern range country 
which are suffering from stomach worms instead of poisoning by loco 
weeds. This illustrates, too, a small point that may be of interest to 
the committee in connection with something said by Professor Spill- 
man, that of simply publishing a discovery and letting it drop. A 
