The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17
BENEFITING THE FARMERS
What Is Being Accomplished by
the Agricultural Department.
The Bureau of Animal Industry and
the Experiment Station Mt Bcth-
esdn-Discovery of AntitoNin for
Texas Fever and Other Diseases.


Everyone knows there is Department
| of Agriculture, but few people. even
among Washngtonians, 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 conn
| 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 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, n dise.-Se 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
| a single case of this disease in the United
| States owing to the magnificent work &C
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 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
DIR. ID. e 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 DIR. Schroeder
TO obtain anything like 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 we are doing
with Texas fever black leg. hog cholera,
swine plague. and lockjaw.
Texas fever is disease which attacks
cattle in the Southern States. Ii is very
atal and kills thousands of cattle every
year. The germ is one which has its
home in warm localities and is not found
in our Northern climes. II is carried to
the animal by 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
its deadly work. just where the tick gets
the germ is not positively known. but
quite likely it comes from the soil which,
in the Southern States. is prolific in mi
cro-organisms. The Texas fever germ is
pyrosoma; that is, a germ which pro-
duces the burning of fever. 1t gets into
the red corpuscle of the blood and des-
troys it 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 II wants to 60
in one direction it simply elongates that
part of it's body which lies in the direc-
tion II intends to go and pulls the rest
of itself after. only part of its body NOV
ing at a tiEie. That is amoeboid motion
Sometimes" continued DR. Schroeder,
the number of red corpuscles in dis /
eased animal gets as low as 10000 to the
millimeter II 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 five
and six million. Now the difference be
tween that number and 10000, as is fire.
quently seen in a diseased cow, will de
terTnine the number of red corpuscles the
Texas fever germ has destroyed and VIII
give us idea as to how great depart
ure from a state of health has been
caused by the pyrosoma.
Our efforts at this station have been |
directed to discover an antioxin Sc
rtfy1 Nashi Nt-tll 1aGf
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 |
smaller than the female The female fire. |
Guently devours her husband when the |
mood strikes her a full grown male is |
about the size of an ordinary brass pin |
head while the female will grow as large |
IS a peanut kernel.
DIPPING THE Cattle.
1t is as necessary said DR.. Schroeder, |
TO destroy the ticks whenever we find |
them on cattle as it is to destroy the |
fever germ when once it has entered the |
blood of the animal II we should find |
the ticks that are visible we can feel con-
fdent that there are many more on the |
cow which we cannot see. We seek TO |
kill these ticks by dipping the animal in |
a solutiv-! which will kill the insects and |
not l1fur, the COW This we do by driv-
ing the animal into a trough sunk in the
floor of one of our outbuildinSs, ana |
bathing IL with the solution. we nave
tried many solutions, some OF which are
effective. but not at all times. We have
not vet hit on any solution which can be
relied upon to do the work in every m
stance. II such bath could be obtained
it would mean millions Of dollars saved
to the cattle-raisers of the country, espe-
cially to those in the Southern States We
will, however, keep on experimenting I'M
til we shall have perfected a dip which
can be relied upon at all times. Such
discovery would throw wide open the mar
ket for Southern cattle.
Another disease we are studying Is
This is one that is very
common among cattle. II is cattle con-
sumption. i learned some time ago OF
a COW belonging to "A dairy herd That was
diseased. | bought that COW and Kept her
for fifty-four days and then killed her
In cutting INTO her udder | found that II
was fun of broken down tubercular de-
post. through which the milk percolated,
charged with millions of tubercular pa
cili 1t is shocking to think that that |
COW had been furnishing milk TO the pub
lie only fifty-four days before. How many
people have been infected from her milk |
II is impossible to know. but the risk and
danger from that one cow Is dreadful to |
think Of.
when we suspect that a COW is tu-
bercuar we make sure of IL by injecting |
Koch's tubercuine into her. If she Is in
fected her temperature will rapidly rise,
and she will show positive evidences OF
the malady. If, however, she is not tu-
berculous there viii be no effect of the
injection.
EXPERIMENTS WITH GUINEA PIGS.
we are making test ia determine
the power OF milk taken from tubercu-
lous cows, to communicate the disease to