The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-12-10
he Dispatch, Columbus. Miss.


Gle of intelligent readers in one Of
the very best natural cattle breeding
sections in the whole nation, and be-
cause the great industry is hampered
and paralyzed by the splenetic or
Texas fever, will you not lend me
little space wherein | may call the
attention of those readers 10 facts
which ii is most important for them
TO know as TO the cause, the cost of
and the remedy for this live cattle
contagion and costly nuisance?
The Cause.-About the cause there
is now no room for argument and
dispute. The one and only true cause
is a microscopic germ which, because
not visible to the naked eye, was not
suspected TO exist And these pesti-
lence breeding germs are alone con-
veyed and transmitted by that pecu-
liar tick, a parasite of domestic cat
tie, known to science as "'margoropus
annulatus.' There are dozens of
kinds of ticks, but this one is the rat
tie snake of the whole tick tribe.
And these ticks have alone been car
ried and scattered all over and all
through the South, from the Rio
Grande, which they crossed long ago
on long cattle into Texas from
old Mexico, even to the shores of the
Chesapeake, by the careless handling
and shipment of tick-infected cattle,
and by suffering such cattle to, al
most everywhere, run at large, and
in just no other way in the world.
This is the clear, cold verdict and
answer of scienc.
The Cost and Waste.-The cost to
the cattle raisers and farmers of this
dire pestilence is in the aggregate an
enormous sum, and is really appall-
ing The ablest experts of the u. S.
agricultural department, after most
painstaking investigation, have placed
their best estimate at no less than
FIVE dollars per head annually. And
because there are in the tick-infected
States, by the L. S. census. about
20,000,000 head of horned cattle and
about 100000 head in Mississippi
alone, why the yearly loss, waste and
utterly useless tax. caused alone by
cattle ticks, is for the whole South
the enormous sum of 500, 100000,
and for Mississippi alone is $40, ,000,-
600 yearly. But how can this be pos
sible, and what are the causes OF such
loss and waste? Well, a vast num-
Der OF cattle in the aggregate do each
year lie down and die of the contag-
ion And this certainly is a very
great loss. And a still larger num-
Der of cattle which do not actually
die are still so injured, poisoned and
stunted as to be of little or no value
thereafter. And this is huge loss
in the aggregate. And then, there
is as a fact a great deterioration in
all the herds of infected sections that
is fast reducing the cattle into a race
OF serabs and stunts. We can breed
down as surely as we can breed up.
And. again, there is the immense loss
in milk and butter from hundreds of
thousands of milk cows, in quality
cost and fees of inspection, impera-
lively demanded by the quarantine,
which has come TO stay, like fixed
Gordon around Mississippi, just as
long as the ticks stay in Mississippi.
And the cost of cattle pens and high
er freight rates and costly and vexa-
tious delays which vex the cattle
buyers and shippers. All these clear
Iy make a great and grievous aggre-
gate. But there is one cause of loss
which is SO patent and obvious that
when pointed out the very dullest
must see. and that is the great
in sale price in all cattle
from tfck-infeeted sections,
below the price paid for cattle of like
grade from tick-free territory. be-
cause all such cattle In the great
markets, which fix the price. are un-
der suspicion and under the ban, and
can only be sold for immediate
slaugh- r.
Now, the is no use complaining.
It is so. But how great is this shrink
age? Well, it has been in Tennessee
about two cents per pound, live
weight, between the price OF cattle
in the tick-infected and quarantined
counties and those counties known
to be free from ticks. And now, let
us assume that all Mississippi cattle
are mere scrubs-and we know 1t is
not so-and that they will only weigh