1 Mar., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 221 
our country, remaining with us year after year with only a faint hope of 
eradication, necessarily presents problems of the greatest interest and 
iniportance. 
When, about eighteen years ago, the writer was called upon to begin the 
investigation of this disease, it was considered advisable to learn, first of all, 
the exact location of ihe district in which the contagion, so much feared by 
the northern cattle-grower, originated. The definition of this district with 
approximate accuracy, and the demonstration that northern cattle taken into 
that district contracted the same disease as was disseminated in the north by 
southern cattle, made it possible to formulate those general problems which 1 
was most essential, in the interests of the cattle industry, should be solved. 
Tt has been said that when a problem is once clearly stated its elucidation 
is half-achieved, and, although this may not always be the case, it certainly is a 
long step toward the desired end- The great Texas fever problems were 
formulated substantially as follows: — 
1. How may cattle be moved from the infected district to other parts 
of the country without endangering the stock of the localities to 
which they are taken? 
2. How may cattle be taken from the non-infected. parts of the country 
into the infected district without subjecting them to the great 
danger of contracting the disease and dying from it? 
3. By what methods and to what extent may the area of the infected 
district be diminished ? 
As it was known that from 75 to 90 per cent. of the adult cattle thoroughly 
exposed to the contagion of Texas fever during the hot weather were likely to 
contract the disease and dic, and as the contagion appeared to be mysterious 
and incomprehensible to an unusual degree, the hope of an early solution of . 
these problems was by no means brilliant. ' 
The first of the problems mentioned was most urgent, and a partial solution 
of it was reached in a few years. Knowing from observation that the infection 
does not spread beyond the grounds upon which the cattle from the infected 
district are allowed to travel, and that it is not dangerous in cold weather, it 
only remained to define accurately the infected district in order to be able to 
prevent the greater part of the infection of the cattle in the States above the 
fever district. ‘To accomplish this the following measures were adopted :— 
1. The infected district was placed in quarantine. 
2. Cattle for grazing were allowed to come out of the infected district 
during the cold weather only, as at this season the infection does 
not spread. 
3. Cattle for immediate slaughter were allowed to come out only on con- 
dition that they be moved by rail ; that when unloaded they 
be placed in pens set apart for infected cattle ; that they should 
not be allowed upon roads or streets used for susceptible cattle, 
and that the cars in which they were transported should afterwards 
be cleaned and disinfected. 
Under these regulations the cattle of the infected district have been marketed 
for years without any serious loss in the Northern States from Texas fever. 
The stockyards of the country have become safe places to buy feeders at any 
time of year, and the old fear of the fever, as well as of the southern cattle, 
has largely disappeared. ‘The hardship and loss were, however, to a great 
extent, shifted from the cattle industry of the north to that of the south. The 
northern feeder could only buy his southern stockers in the winter, but this was 
an inconvenience rather than a loss. On the other hand, the southern breeder 
was obliged to stand a loss on his quarantined cattle shipped for slaughter, and 
also to hold his stockers much later in the season than would otherwise have 
been necessary. The danger to cattle taken into the infected district to 
improve the stock continued, and the infection was unquestionably advancing 
into territory that had never before been affected. 
