The times., 1901-03-17
BBNEFITING THE FARMERS
What Is Being Accomplished by
the Agricultural Department.
The Bureau of Animal Industry and
the Experiment Station mt Beth
esda-Discovcry of AntitoSin for
Texas Fever and Other Diseases.

I
Everyone knows there is a Department
| of Agriculture but few people, even
among Washingtonians know what in
| teresting and valuable work is being done
/ by this branch Of the Government and
| of how much Importance, expressed in
! dollars and cents, that work is TO the
! farmer and stock raiser. In one depart
| ment alone. the Bureau OF Animal Indus
/ try. the work accomplished has resulted in
/ a saving to the stock -raisers in this coun-
! try of many millions of dollars annually
/ many times more than the annual cost of
/ the Agricultural Department in its entire
( ty. The practical value Of this work IS
not confined to the farmer and stock
: raiser, but is of the most vital import
ance to every man, woman. and child
/ throughout the land.
! Less than a mile from the District line,
on the road TO Rockville, Md, is the EX-
! pertinent Station Of the Bureau Of Animal
! Industry. where the diseases of animals,
| such as sheep, horses, cattle. and other
/ live stock raised by the farmer, are
/ studied with the ultimate object of dis
/ covering ways and means of curing the
ailments and preventing their recurrence.
! Pleuro-pneumonia, disease which has
/ killed thousands of cattle in this country
! every year, and which is still the scourge
/ Of the farmers in Europe, has been wiped
| out in this country by the thorough work
! done by the bureau.
! There is not and has not been for years
/ q single case of this disease in the l nited
/ States owing to the magnificent work ac-
! Complished by the Agricultural Depart
| ment The Army, Navy, and state de
! partments are more snowy and make
| more hustle but the direct benefit TO the
! citizen Of the United States is not so ap-
parent as is the practical good which the
Department of Agriculture does every
| year.
A Times reporter visited the Experiment
Station at Bethesda one day last week
! and learned what the department is do
| ing there. An appointment had been
| made with DR. Schroeder, superintendent
| of the station, through the courtesy of
| Or. -. L. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of
station with DIR. Schroeder is time well
spent and fun of information and en-
tertainment
At THE EXPERIMENT STATION
1T is impossible" said DR.. Schroeder,
| "to obtain anything like a satisfactory
| idea of the work which we are engaged
! in here in a single day. One would have
| to remain for a considerable time and
watch the work step by step. But some
idea can be had of what are doing
with Texas fever, black leg, hog cholera,
swine plague, and lockjaw.
Texas fever is a disease which attacks
cattle in the Southern States. 1t is very
fatal and kills thousands of cattle every
year. The germ is one which has its
home in warm localities aud is not found
in our Northern climes. 1t Is carried 10
the animal by a tick. an insect belonging
to the spider family The tick attaches
itself TO the hide OF the cattle and, like
all ticks. punctures the skin and thus eX-
poses a raw surface TO the fever germ
which gets into the blood and then does
it's deadly work. just where the tick gets
the germ is not positively known. but
quite likely ii comes from the soil which,
in the Southern States is prolific in mi
CrO-organisms. The Texas fever germ is
pyrOsoma; that is, germ which pro-
duces the burning of fever. 1t gets into
the red corpuScle of the blood and deS-
troys ii. The animal attacked with the
disease becomes anaemie and finally dies
as the result of two few red corpuscles
The germ is an amoeba in the earlier
stages Of its existence. IL has the power
of moving about from one place to an
other.
The amoeba moves something IKE a
leech or angle worm. II it wants to 90
in one direction it simply elongates that
part of it's body which lies in the direc-
tion IL intends to go and pulls the rest
of itself after, only part of its body NOV
ing at a time That is amoeboid motion.
Sometimes" continued DR.. Schroeder
the number of red corpuscles in dis
ca ased animal gets as low as 10000 to the
miIlimeter. If one millimeter of blood
from a healthy COW is taken and the
number of red corpuscles counted it will
be found that there are between nve
and six million. Now the difference be
tween that number and 100000, as is fire.
quently seen In a diseased cow, viii de
termine the number of red corpuscIeS the
Texas fever germ has destroyed and VIII
give us an idea as TO how great a depart
ure from state of health has been
caused by the pyrosoma.
Our efforts at this station have been
directed to discover an antioxin Sc
rum which will destroy the germ and
render the animal immune. In this we
have been fairly successful. Cattle
brought from the Southern States car
~ with them frequently the tick with car
ries the fever germ. These ticks
range in size from mere pin points to
insects as large as a bean, depending on
their age The male tick is very much
smaller than the female The female fre-
Guently dcvours her husband when the
mood strikes her full grown male is
about the size of an ordinary brass pm
head while the female will grow as large
~ a peanut kernel
DIPPING THE CATTLE.
1T is as necessary said DR.. Schroeder,
TO destroy the ticks whenever we find
them on cattle as ii is to destroy the
fever germ when once it has entered the
blood of the animal If we should find
the ticks that are visible we can feel con-
fident that there are many more on the
COW which we cannot see. We seek 10
d solution which will kill the insects ana
not inture the COW. This we do by drlV-
ing the animal into trough sunk IN the
floor of one of our outbulldlnSS, ana
bathing il with the solution. We have
tried many solutions, some OF Wnlch are
effective but not at all times. we nave
not vet hit on any solution Whlch can De
relied upon to do the work in every m
stance. If such bath could be obtained
it would mean millions of dollars saved
TO the cattle-raisers of the country, espe-
ciaIIy TO those in the Southern States. We
will, however, keep on experimenting uIl-
I'll we shall have perfected dip which
can be relied upon at all times Such 4
discovery would throw wide open the mar
kct for Southern cattle.
Another disease we are studying Is
tuberculosis. This is one that IS very
common among cattle. II Is cattle con-
sumption. ! learned some time ago OF
a COW belonging to a dairy herd that was
diseased. l bought that cow and kept her
for dfty-four days and then killed her.
In cutting INTO her udder ! found that II
was fun of broken down tubercular de
pOsit. through which the milk percolated,
charged with millions of tubercular pa
CilIi. IT is shocking to think that that
COW had been furnishing milk TO the pup
lie only fifty-fOur DAYS before. How many
people have been infected from her milk
Ii is impossible to know, but the RISK ana
danger from that one cow Is dreadful 10
think Of.
bercular we make sure Of II by injecting
Koch's tuberculine into her If she - IN
fected her temperature VIII raploIy rise,
and she will show positive evidences OF
the malady. If, however, she Is not tu-
berculOus there viii be no effect OF the
tubeTCuline injection.
EXPERIMENTS WITH GUINEA PIGS.
we are making a test to determine
the power of milk, taken from tubercu-
lous cows, to communicate the disease to
other animals and human beings. This is