SANITARY WORK IN UNITED STATES. 
569 
i. 
“ It was found to be by no means a simple matter, at first, to 
obtain the history of the cattle purchased for export, and to 
mark them for identification with a numbered tag. Such tags 
had been put in the ears of cows in the pleuro-pneumonia in¬ 
spection without any serious trouble, but it was quite another 
kind of work to go into the stock yards and put tags in the ears 
of the powerful and bellicose steers, many of which had never 
recognized the sovereignty of men.” 
To fully appreciate this difficulty one must know Texan 
cattle and have approached them. 
u By perseverance, however, the details of a practical system 
were worked out. Tagging chutes were constructed, through 
which the cattle passes in single file and where the tag could 
easily be attached to the ear with an ordinary hog ringer.” 
And now this work is in full swing, the cattle are tagged at the 
first stock yards to which they are shipped, their feeding places 
are ascertained, a note is made of the cars in which they are 
forwarded, and the inspector of the bureau at the next unloading 
point and also at the port from which they are to be exported 
are notified. In this way the inspector at the port can con¬ 
scientiously give a certificate of freedom from contagious disease 
after the animals have passed his inspection. 
Sheep are also inspected before exportation, but are not 
tagged. 
The following figures show the amount of work that this 
system has accomplished : 
CATTEE 
SHEEP 
YEAR 
Number of 
Inspections 
Number 
Tagged 
Number 
Exported 
Number of 
Inspections 
Number 
Exported 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
6lT,542 
725,243 
657,756 
815,882 
845,116 
859,346 
280,570 
360,580 
324,339 
377,639 
410,379 
418,694 
289,240 
363,535 
324,299 
365,345 
390,554 
400,512 
135,780 
704,044 
733,657 
348,108 
297 , 7?9 
85,800 
350,808 
422,603 
184,596 
147,907 
