780 
M. R. TRUMBOWER. 
more than that they were not successful. It was during- that 
year that I first heard suggested by some of the stockmen and 
butchers who had seen much of the disease, their belief in the 
connection between Texas fever and cattle ticks. That such 
a connection does exist was shown first, as we all know, by 
the experiments of Smith and Kilborne. Before that time, 
the generally accepted theory was that cattle from the fever 
regions, when brought on to the northern pastures infected 
these by means of their excretions—faeces and urine—and the 
lengthy interval that was always observed before the disease 
occurred was explained by assuming that the germs required 
to develop for some weeks in the soil before regaining their 
virulence. We now know that these theories are incorrect. 
“ It is perhaps unnecessary to enter into details of the experi¬ 
ments, just referred to, of the Bureau of Animal Industry. 
With these, most of you are no doubt familiar. If I briefly 
outline my own experiments in this connection it is because 
these cover, to a large extent, the same ground, and with the 
admission that, so far as the tick theory is concerned, they 
were suggested by the Government publication of which 
mention has been made. 
“ In 1889 attempts were made to convey Texas fever to 
susceptible cattle by feeding them with the grasses closely 
cut from the infected southern pastures ; and in the following 
two years very thorough tests were made of the supposed 
infection-bearing property of the fseces of southern cattle. 
Both of these tests led to negative results. 
“In 1891, and again in 1892, the tick theory of infection 
was tested in the following manner : 
“ Close boarded pens of twenty to thirty feet square were 
put up at the experimental station at Fayetteville, which is a 
non-infected region, and on the surface of these pens were 
scattered in the early summer a number of full grown ticks, 
generally from twenty to a hundred, which had been picked 
from cattle in the fever-infected districts of Arkansas, Miss¬ 
issippi and Louisiana ; one or more susceptible cattle were 
then introduced into each of the pens, where they remained 
until the completion of the experiment. They were closely 
