A few months ago a circular letter was distributed, offering to sup ply vaccine prepared in the Bureau for experimental purposes upon application by the owners of cattle, providing a report were made as to the losses from this disease and the effects of the vaccination. The information thus received has been very surprising. It appears that blackleg causes greater losses in some of the Southern and Western States than all other diseases combined. These losses are placed at

from 10 to 20 per cent of the young stock.

About 100,000 doses of the vaccine have been distributed, and reports show that it can be safely used by the owners of cattle and that the deaths from blackleg soon stop after the herd has been vaccinated.

SHEEP SCAB.

Scab of sheep should not be allowed to exist in any sheep-raising country. It is caused by a parasite which is easily killed and eradicated, and if this parasite is exterminated the disease will no longer develop. The continued existence of such a disease is a reflection upon the intelligence and humanity of a people.

Notwithstanding these facts, sheep scab has for many years been one of our most common, widespread, and destructive diseases. The time has come when the disease should be controlled and eradicated. In order to assist in this, the Zoological Laboratory of the Bureau has been making experiments with various remedies in order to determine which are most effective in curing the disease, and which cause the least damage to the wool and to the general condition of the animals. The information obtained in this manner has been collated and will be published [see p. 98], in order that sheep growers may avail themselves of it before sending their animals to market. The shipper of diseased sheep must always expect to lose money upon them. They may be quarantined, they may be condemned as unfit for the production of human food, they may be subjected to charges for dipping before being forwarded from one State to another, and under any circumstances the purchaser is unwilling to allow the full price of healthy animals. It is, therefore, greatly to the advantage of the sheep raiser to eradicate the disease from his flock before any are marketed. This the Bureau proposes to assist him in doing by furnishing information as to how to make and apply the best remedies.

ANIMAL PARASITES AND PARASITIC DISEASES.

The study of animal parasites and the diseases which they cause has until recently been greatly neglected in this country, and yet the subject is a most important one. A brief mention has just been made of scabies in sheep, but this species of animal is subject to many other serious parasitic diseases. There are lung worms, stomach worms, and intestinal worms of various species, each variety of which may cause outbreaks of diseases, debilitating and stopping the growth of the animals and causing the death of many of them.

Other species of our domesticated animals are often seriously affected by animal parasites, and many mysterious cases of disease are due to their effects. Some of these parasites are even dangerous to the health and lives of the people who consume the meat of affected animals. Everyone has heard of the trichina which is so common in the flesh of hogs and which has brought so many restrictions upon our foreign trade in pork products. It goes without saying that parasites which not only menace the health and lives of our domesticated animals, which threaten the health of the consumer of meats, and which endanger the commercial relations of great nations, are worthy of careful and thorough study. Such a study is being made in the Zoological Laboratory of this Bureau, where there is now the best collection of such parasites that is to be found in the world.

Investigations are being made to learn the exact nature of each parasite, how animals become infected, how and where the parasites multiply, and how they are to be treated.

THE DAIRY WORK.

The importance of the dairy industry has long deserved the recognition of the Department, but it is only recently that a Dairy Division has been organized in this Bureau. Its efforts have been largely confined to the collection of information, the publication and distribution of bulletins upon dairy topics, and the encouragement of dairy organizations by attending their meetings and giving legitimate assistance. The milk supply and service of large cities has been made a special subject of investigation, with the object of assisting in the improvement of the quality of the milk and its condition upon delivery to the

consumers.

The depressed condition of the exports of dairy products for a number of years emphasizes the desirability of active measures to assist and encourage this branch of the foreign trade. With a view to this, a number of experimental shipments of carefully-selected butter from creameries in the great butter-producing sections of the country were made during the last year. These have furnished much information concerning the difficulties that are encountered by the trade and as to the requirements of foreign markets. They have also convinced English merchants of reputation and influence of the high quality of butter obtainable in this country, and of the practicability of placing it in British markets without appreciable deterioration. It is proposed during 1898 to repeat these trial shipments and to extend them. to a wider field.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE BUREAU.

In 1891 it was found that the growth and extension of the work of the Bureau made it desirable that it should be reorganized into a number of distinct divisions, in order that it might be better system

atized and directed. There have been formed up to the present time the following divisions:

(1) The Inspection Division, to which is assigned work of an executive nature, including the eradication of contagious diseases, the inspection of export and import animals, meat inspection, vessel inspection, and the regulation of the movement of Southern cattle (to prevent the spread of Texas fever).

(2) The Pathological Division, which is principally engaged in investigating the diseases among domesticated animals to determine their nature, cause, and treatment, together with the most practical method of prevention.

(3) The Biochemic Division, to which is assigned the chemical problems arising during the investigation of disease and the preparation of tuberculin, mallein, and the various serums for the prevention and cure of disease.

(4) The Zoological Laboratory, to which is assigned the study of the parasites affecting our domesticated animals and the diseases which they induce.

(5) The Dairy Division, which collects and disseminates information relating to the dairy industry in the United States.

(6) The Miscellaneous Division, which has supervision over the accounts and expenditures, conducts the general correspondence in regard to diseases and the animal industry of the country, and directs the field investigations.

(7) The experimental station, where the animals used in the experiments are kept, where small animals for these purposes are bred, and where antitoxic serums for animal diseases are prepared.

All of this machinery of the Bureau is working in one way or another to stop the losses and to increase the receipts of the stock raisers of the United States. To understand the different lines of this work, the objects in view, and what is being accomplished, it is desirable to take up one problem at a time.

THE BENEFITS DERIVED FROM THE BUREAU WORK.

In what has preceded, an effort has been made to give a general idea of the work of the Bureau of Animal Industry, the objects in view, and some of the more important results. Many minor points have been omitted, and much valuable service that is being rendered has not been mentioned. It may be stated in a general way that the policy of the Bureau has always been to render direct returns to the country of a value greater than the appropriations which it consumes. It has never been willing to spend money without being able to show commensurate results.

The eradication of pleuro-pneumonia stopped the ravages of that disease, and saved just that much to the cattle industry. The regulation of vessels reduced the losses at sea, and saves from $2,000,000 to

$3,000,000 annually in insurance of export cattle. The Texas fever regulations yearly prevent at least $500,000 in losses from that dis

ease.

The manufacture of tuberculin saves State authorities not less than $15,000 a year, and gives them a more reliable article than they formerly obtained by importation from abroad. The distribution of blackleg vaccine is already saving $100,000 worth of cattle a year, according to the reports of the owners.

In other words, the executive work for the eradication and control of diseases and the supervision of export animals has yielded, and will continue to yield, direct results that save our farmers many times the cost of the Bureau work. The scientific laboratory and experiment station are furnishing tuberculin, mallein, blackleg vaccine, and hog cholera serum worth much more than the cost of the scientific work. And, finally, the Dairy Division, by extending the markets for American butter, will bring returns that will fully justify its existence and the expenditures which it is making.

Although these few lines of work have yielded such satisfactory returns, the benefit of the meat inspection and that of the inspection of export and import cattle has been even greater in maintaining our export trade and establishing the reputation of our meats. The money value of this work is incalculable, as is that of the scientific investigation of diseases. The serum treatment for hog cholera, for example, will make it possible to save many millions of dollars annually. The object at present is to show, however, that the Bureau is yielding direct and definite returns far beyond its cost.

These statements are made because the appropriations to the Bureau have been comparatively large, and there has not always been a clear understanding of the nature and results of its work. It is incontestable that this is one bureau of the Government which has yielded to the country a constant profit, and which still has opportunities before it that warrant a further extension of its field of work.

SOME ESSENTIALS IN BEEF PRODUCTION.1

By C. F. CURTISS, M. S. A.,

Director of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station and Professor of Agriculture in the Iowa Agricultural College.

A brief consideration of the qualities of practical excellence in beef cattle may well engage the attention of the breeder and feeder. A topic of this character is too often regarded as of interest only to the professional exhibitor or the lecture room instructor and student. But every successful breeder must always be a student, for the first essential in successful breeding is a clear conception of what constitutes a good animal and of all the characteristics that go to make up real excellence in a herd. It is said that the late renowned Amos Cruickshank, the founder of the great Scotch tribe of Shorthorns, was often seen by the side of the leading sale rings of Great Britain intently studying every animal that came into the ring, and his minute knowledge of all the animals shown was the marvel of those who chanced to converse with him about them afterwards. While the methods of the justly celebrated Robert Bakewell, the first great improver of live stock, were largely secret, it is known that he was not only an exceedingly close student of living forms, but that his rooms were also full of models and parts of domestic animals that he had carefully dissected and preserved for future reference. In his work of selection and improvement he imparted to the Leicester sheep such a remarkable aptitude to take on flesh that this quality remains, even to the present day, a characteristic of the breed to a greater degree than of any other long-wooled breeds of England.

This aptitude to take on flesh is of vital importance to the beef producer as well as to the breeder of show-ring and sale stock. The show-ring type must necessarily keep close to and be largely governed by the practical demands imposed by the feed yard and the block, else the lessons of the show yard and sale ring are without value, if not positively misleading. No one is more concerned in what constitutes the essential qualities of a good beef animal than the man who breeds and feeds for the block and attempts to meet the conditions imposed by the market; for it must be kept in mind that this is the

'This article is also published as Farmers' Bulletin No. 71, and may be obtained free by addressing a request to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.