Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-09-15
a Winning Campaign

Because OF the spirit of cooperation
among the people of the South in the work of
eradicating the tick which transmits Texas
fever to cattle, this destructive and expensive
pest should be eliminated from the territory
Of the United States within the next five
years
This announcement by the National Depart
ment of Agriculture is broadly significant and en-
couraging. 1t means that one of the most serious
obstacles TO the growth of livestock interests in
the South is yielding at last to scientific effort
supported by enlightened public sentiment AS
long the tick menace prevailed, there
chance for the due development of cattle raising
and dairying industries and accordingly no chance
for the full development of the South's farm
sources. The successful campaign against this
pest open the way to a new of agricultural
progress and enrichment.
In Virginia, where only four counties are
under quarantine. the cattle tick will be Grad
icated by another year of steady work South
Carolina bids fair to be entirely free by 1918 BY
the end Of 1917, il appears, only fifteen Alabama
counties will be quarantined and these probably
will be released the following year. The Missis-
sippi Legislature recently passed law requiring
all counties in the quarantine area to eradicate
the tick during 1917. Nearly all the infested
counties" says an ofhcial report. have already
q
Statewide campaign is we'll under way" The
hardest task. according to the National Depart
ment OF Agriculture is in Georgia. Florida and
Texas but in these States well as in the South
at large the rank and file of farmers alert to
their needs and opportunities. and are co-operat-
ing efectualy with the State and federal authori-
tiles
Since the campaign to exterminate the cattle
tick was begun some ten years ago the cattle in
81
one hundred per cent. Says the Department. bull
letin:
Native beef cattle, freed from attacks of
the ticks. have put flesh; native
dairy cows are giving more milk; and, be-
cause danger of disease largely has been elm
mated, cattle of better breeds have been
brought into improve the native stock. The
South has made greater progress in develop
ing the cattle industry in the last years than
in the preceding so years, and there has been
progress in the industry in the South in
that period than in any other section. The
States and counties. railways and other cor
porations. and business men of the South
have been active in emphasizing the great i'm
Dortance of tick eradication and in spreading
interest and information among farmers and
cattlemen. AS result of the operation of all
these forces. the work of tick eradication
practically has been half completed"
Ten years ago seven hundred and twenty-eight
thousand, five hundred and forty-three square
miles of territory under quarantine. On
July the first of the current year approximately
two hundred and eighty-hve thousand square miles
had been tick Free and it is estimated that by next
January sixty thousand additional square miles
will be freed. These results mean a great deal to
the country's welfare. especially in the South
where cattle raising broader lines is essential
to agricultural progress