The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-04

At the annual convention of the South ern Cattlemen's Association in Montgom- cry recently, Dr.. R. A. Ramsey, chief of the tick eradication division of the bureau of animal industry, United States department of agriculture . made an ad- dress. in the course of which he said;
 Tt Is not my intention or desire to
 nflict on this association long story of our perplexities and adversties fur ther than to state that the work is now in somewhat critical condition. In the 5o9,OS4 square miles released from quar- antine there are, of course, a few infested premises or centers of tick infestation, which must be held under control until such time as the last tick can be put out of existence. This condition taken in conjunction with the effort to eradicate tisks from the area still under quaran- tione, means that federal funds and state funds have to be, spread very thinly over a very large territory and a very large amount of work. In fact, the funcs nave to be spread so sparsely that at present IL is difficult to concentrate efforts in certain areas to such a degree as 1t was done few years ago.
 ITO one who is not familiar with the work and conditions it would apepar that ! the areas which have ben practically | freed from ticks. with the exception of very localized sections, could be left to the tender mercies of state organizations. | The difficulties connected with such a plan are about what has been experi- enced by the bureau in it's work of eradi- eating cattle scabies and sheep scabies In l the western states During the time that the federal government Is actively CO., operating with the states in the eradica- 1 tion of diseases and In the enforcement | Of federal and state regulations, there lis generally 8 disposition on the part of the states to eliminate local politics from live stock sanitary work and to organize in such a way,as to obtain the very best results. In fact, such procedure is re- | quired before bureau co-operation is ob- | tained.
 However, 1t has been found that as soon as the work is practically completed and the greater portion of the state re- leased from quarantine the state legisla-
 ture immediately finds a place to econo-
 mize by greatly diminishing the appropri- ations formerly made for the eradication of live stock diseases. When these appro- priations are reduced, interest in the work is reduced, and there Is shown Tn nearly
 overly state a disposition to replace com potent state live stock sanitary official:
 familiar with the work by men whose
 main qualifications are loyalty to th' particular party or administration il
 power. As result of this change il
 state attitude and organization, smal lamount of disease infection soon spreads
 until in a few years former conditions ar'
 likely to prevail, necessitating a dupNSa
 tion of the campaign for eradication. 7'he
 opponents to the work are given an oppor
 tunity to say, told you so.' From tim
 to time. an opportunity has presente itself. I have endeavored to advise an'
 warn some of the southern states agains
 making the same error that was made il the western states, but with very litti avail. 'Tt is by no means my intention to in ) timate that state legislatures or state ex l ecutives are vicious or willeully negligen } regarding the support of live stock sani } tary work and the development of cattl [ or other live stock industry. But man