The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-27
Eradicdting Disease By Machinery
BY JOHN \. HERMAN, V. S. U. $. Bureau of Animal Industry.

progress has been remarkable. At the outset of the campaign the people were unfamiliar with the eradication proposa- ton, but thoroughly familiar with the annual crop of blood sucking ticks, wnicn appeared as regularly as the mild, palmy spring follows the rigorous winter months That these pests which have been pres ent so long that the oldest 1nhabitan' had seen them on his grandfathers COWS could be exterminated, sounded mighty ridiculous to most folk.
 Just a few years back very few peo- ple bilieved ticks could be stamped out They have been entirely eradicated | from more than 210.0o0 square miles | of territory in less than eight years. The cost of cleaning up that territory is about s1,000,000 and the value of the work to the cattle owners by the in- crease in prices amounts to s20,000, GOO.
 More than one e-fourth of the original quarantined area has been cleaned In eight years At that rate it would take more than a quarter of a century to
 stamp out the great evil from this na- | ton.
 Eight years should be sufficient time | to accomplish the remainder of this work The south cannot stand still or
 be satisfied with the present progress. 1 Onward. ever onward, must be the movement
 Now they have solved most of the difficulties attending the eradication lcsmpaign. They have the dipping vats and arsenical solution which Is safe, reliable and inexpensive method of destroying the tick. With these vats located at intervals of every four miles
 in county all the cattle may be dipped Ievery two weeks and in four months in the summer an entire county may be cleaned yea. an entire state; In | fact, the entire area
 There is absolutely no legitimate reason why they should not attack this
 basic subject which costs annually Si00 900, 900 in a business-like way.
 Placing tick infested cattle on basis of diseased animals, they should with our hesitancy or delay, attack the prob lem as they would any other contagious or infectious disease. The attack should be more vigorous and widespread, 1t should be nation wide, for they know all about the tick. its life history, It's | weaknesses its vulnerableness-its remedy It kills cattle and lays waste mans endeavor to build up cattle in- dustry. It is a menace. a costly drain, | an unjustifiable expense. needless tax( an obstacle and the greatest one in the way of the cattle business of the south. Every 10 years it's aggre- the total national debt. The south has tolerated the tick these many years and has paid dear for its indulgence. | Can any state deny its people the assistance to stamp out a great plague that stands in the way of progress ana prosperity? It will not. if the people demand assistance. To rouse the peo- pie then to the importance of the cat tie industry in the development of their country will put that undulating wave of popular sentiment in motion that will carry this movement into every state of the south It needs little imag- ination viewing through the perspee- | tive to see the total annihilation of this $1O0,000,000 tick.
 The peoples estimate of the value of tick eradication as indicated by more than 1000 practical cattlemen shows that the losses from Texas fever are reduced from 1S.5 per cent to II per cent of the total number of cattle. The value of steers Is increased 55 per cent. The weight of cattle increased 1s.7 per cent. The grade of cattle very much l improved and crop production increased | S3 per cent by the use of COW manure
 In the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi ! Louisiana Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas there are 15,03S.S05 cattle valued at s2S6,6Ss.62S. Now let us apply the rule of increased valuation as the re- suit of eradicating the tick from those states and we will have increased thefi
 value to s429. .959,4S4, an actual in- crease of s143,319, ,S11.65.
 With the tick obstacle removed there