2.52 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ble from the inclement weather. When it is found necessary to feed 

 hay which contains a considerable quantity of ergot it is of course doubly 

 important to look after the water supply and the shelter. 



GrEOGBAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOUTHERN CATTLE 



FEVER. 



An approximately correct outline of the district permanently infected 

 witli southern fever is a matter of supreme importance*, Dot only to the 

 people who live within and near this district, but to those interested in 

 live-stock in every part of the country. The losses which occur every 

 summer, and which in some years have been really disastrous to the 

 stock owners of certain sections, have been largely the result, of igno- 

 rance of the districts from which it is dangerous to bring cattle in sum- 

 mer, and to which adult cattle cannot be taken with safety at any sea- 

 son of the year, unless they are to be slaughtered for beef within a short 

 time after their arrival. 



An attempt to make efficient laws to guard against this malady by 

 regulating the movement of cattle from infected localities has generally 

 failed to give relief, because these districts could not be accurately 

 designated. States, therefore, as well as individuals, have been unable 

 to protect themselves, and the losses have gone on year after year in 

 spite of individual precautions and State laws. The cheap cattle of 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Southeastern Virginia, and 

 other infected sections are at times carried to the most remote sections 

 of the country, and when this is done in spring or summer extensive 

 aud fatal outbreaks of southern fever among the susceptible animals 

 which cross their trail or mix with them upon their pastures is the 

 general result. 



Last year such outbreaks of disease are known to have occurred in 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and even in Dakota. Colorado 

 and Wyoming seem to have escaped, notwithstanding the introduction 

 of Southern cattle, and this was probably due to the peculiar climatic 

 conditions, the excessive dryness of the atmosphere preventing the 

 multiplication of germs and soon destroying them. 



It is evident, however, that this disease maybe carried to most parts 

 of the country, and that before anything can be accomplished toward 

 preventing the very important losses which are now annually caused by 

 it, we must have more accurate knowledge of the section from which 

 cattle are liable to carry the infection. To obtain the .information nec- 

 essary to map out the infected district special agents have been em- 

 ployed, who have carefully traversed every county along the border- 

 line of this district, and have investigated the cattle diseases with suffi- 

 cient detail to locate the limits of the infected district in most counties 

 with very great accuracy. In some counties a sharp line cannot be 

 drawn, because it does not exist, but in such cases the line has been 

 drawn sufficiently toward the uninfected district to embrace, as is be- 

 lieved, all the territory that was really infected at the time of examina- 

 tion. As this district is being continually enlarged by a gradual though 

 very slow advance of the infection, it is not safe to buy cattle near this 

 line for shipment to the North in summer, unless a careful personal in- 

 vestigation is made by the purchaser at the time. 



