TEXAS FEVER. 339 
being inoculated. They will require some time to adjust them¬ 
selves to a new diet. It will be seen from the “ College Sta¬ 
tion experiment, page 44, that this may be done gradually 
without any maiked digestive disturbance. With proper care 
they become accustomed in a few weeks to eating cotton seed 
hulls and a mixture of bran, oats and cotton seed meal. They 
should not have free access to cotton seed in large quantities, 
as this causes a very troublesome diarrhoea in some calves. I11 
many parts of the State the cactus is abundant. This is a very 
suitable food for cattle during the inoculation fever, as it con¬ 
tains a mucilaginous substance which has a laxative effect. If 
this be not available, a few acres planted in oats furnishes an 
excellent winter pasture. 
Relapses. A few deaths occurred four or five months after 
the cattle were exposed to infected grounds. In the Green 
herd ten head died. Among the Tod bulls, two of the oldest 
animals died, and another of the large ones was sick. A few 
of the smaller ones were a little off. Both of the Waskom two- 
year-old bulls were sick, but recovered. 
All of tne bulls had ripened a few ticks without showing 
any fever. The tod bulls had been well infested, but at the 
time of death were carrying only a few ticks. It appears that 
in the Green herd a number of the calves did not pick up many 
ticks until well along in the summer, when they became grossly 
infested. In this case, the long interval between inoculation 
and gross infestation may account for the result. An additional 
inoculation or several mild tick infestations earlier in the sea¬ 
son might have given the necessary stimulation to effect immu¬ 
nity. In this case it is not known whether the bulls that died 
had reacted well from the inoculation, as individual records of 
this lot were not made. 
In the case of the Tod and Waskom bulls, the owners think 
that the relapses were preventable. Capt. Tod says : “ I have 
now no doubt but over excitement, over service, and over heat- 
i n g> aggravated by fighting a good deal, was the cause of their 
succumbing,” and that this result could have been avoided by 
1 
