crop production the manner in which the cattle could be obtained. from the distressed sections and have greatly aided in arranging for their transportation. As a result of their efforts it is estimated that approximately 300,000 head of cattle were saved from starvation or premature slaughter.

OVERCOMING ANIMAL DISEASES.

The increasing control and eradication of animal diseases stimulated production on a more economical basis. For years the Department has been carrying on such work, but during the past year its efforts were greatly extended and more vigorously prosecuted with unusually favorable results.

The cattle tick.-The progress made in the eradication of the southern cattle ticks led to the release from quarantine of 67,308 square miles, the largest area freed in any year since the beginning of the work in 1906. The total free area is now 379,312 square miles, or 52 per cent of that originally quarantined; and the work of the past summer will result in the addition of 79,217 more on December 1. The release of the remainder of the State of Mississippi since my last report makes the first strip of uninfested territory from the interior to the Gulf of Mexico, and the proposed action on December 1 will liberate the entire State of South Carolina, thus opening a broad avenue of free territory to the Atlantic Ocean.

The method of eradication employed is the systematic and regular dipping, throughout the season, in a standard arsenical solution of all cattle in a community. The cost has been from 18 to 50 cents a head, while the enhanced value of each animal greatly exceeds this, one canvass having shown an estimated average increase of $9.76. The eradication of the ticks not only prevents heavy losses, but also permits the raising of high-class beef cattle and the development of dairying in sections where neither was before economically possible.

Hog cholera. The ravages of hog cholera, the greatest obstacle to increasing hog production, were greatly reduced as a result of the cooperative campaign conducted in 33 States. The methods. of control involved farm sanitation, quarantine, and the application of anti-hog-cholera serum. Data compiled by the Department show that the losses from hog cholera in the year ending March

31, 1918, amounted to only $32,000,000, as compared with $75,000,000 in 1914, a reduction of more than 50 per cent in less than five years. Stated in another way, the death rate from hog cholera in the United States was 144 per thousand in 1897, 118 in 1914, and only 42 in 1917, the lowest in 35 years.

The protective serum was used also at public stockyards during the last year. Among the hogs received at market centers there are many which are too light in weight for slaughtering and which should be sent back to farms for further growth and fattening. Formerly, because of the danger of spreading cholera, the Department would not allow hogs to leave public stockyards except for immediate slaughter. The result was that all light-weight hogs sent to the markets were slaughtered. Some of these were young sows suitable for breeding. Now the Bureau of Animal Industry treats these immature pigs with serum and allows them to be shipped out as stockers and feeders. During the past year more than 250,000 head were handled in this way. Their average weight was approximately 100 pounds. It is probable that practically all of them were returned to the markets later at an average weight of 250 to 275 pounds, making an aggregate gain of about 40,000,000 pounds of pork.

Tuberculosis.-Tuberculosis, the most widely distributed destructive disease that now menaces the live-stock industry, recently was made a special object of attack. In cooperation with State authorities and live-stock owners, a campaign was undertaken in 40 States to eradicate tuberculosis from herds of pure-bred cattle, from swine, and in selected areas. At present our efforts are concentrated on the first project, since the pure-bred herds are the foundation of our breeding stock. A plan adopted in December, 1917, by the United States Live Stock Sanitary Association and representatives of breeders' associations, and approved by the Department, was put into operation with the assistance of a large number of herd owners. Herds are tested with tuberculin, and any diseased animals are removed and the premises cleaned and disinfected. Subsequent tests are made at proper intervals. By this means there is being established an accredited list of pure-bred herds from which breeding stock may be secured with reasonable assurance that it is free from tuberculosis. The first list, consisting of more than 1,000 names of owners of herds of pure-bred cattle, representing tests made

1

up to the end of the fiscal year, was compiled and printed for distribution to breeders.

Parasitic and other diseases.-Enlarged forces and more energetic measures brought further progress in the eradication of the parasitic diseases known as scabies or scab of sheep and cattle. These diseases now linger in only a few small areas. Aid was extended to the War Department and to State and local authorities in reducing and preventing losses from influenza or shipping fever of horses, which has been very prevalent among animals collected for Army purposes. Greater efforts were put forth also to control, reduce, and prevent blackleg, anthrax, hemorrhagic septicemia, contagious abortion, dourine, parasites, plant poisoning, and other diseases which operate to reduce live-stock production.

PREDATORY ANIMALS.

The increasing control and destruction of predatory animals had a direct bearing on live-stock production. During the year there were captured and killed 849 wolves, 26,241 coyotes, 85 mountain lions, and 3,462 bobcats and lynxes. It is estimated that the destruction of these pests resulted in a saving of live stock valued at $2,376,650.

The cooperative State campaigns organized to exterminate native rodents, mainly prairie dogs, ground squirrels, pocket gophers, and jack rabbits, which annually destroy $150,000,000 worth of food and feed products, proved to be practical and of great immediate value in increasing grain and forage production. To destroy ground squirrels and prairie dogs on more than 3,295,000 acres of agricultural lands in Montana, 15,865 farmers distributed 276 tons of poisoned grain prepared under direction, while in North Dakota 34,796 treated once approximately 5,430,000 acres and a second time over 7,000,000 acres covered in similar campaigns during the preceding two years. In Idaho the work has been in progress in 22 counties, with more than 4,000 farmers and officials assisting; and it is planned to include every county in the State next year. Similar work was organized and is in progress in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California, Arizona, and New Mexico in cooperation with agricultural college extension departments, State councils of defense, and other local organizations. Several million bushels of grain and much hay and forage were saved through these

efforts, which will be continued on an enlarged scale during the coming year.

NATIONAL FOREST RANGES.

A very material increase was brought about in the production of meat and wool on the forest ranges. Careful observation of range conditions and study of the methods which would secure the most complete utilization of the forage disclosed that a very considerable increase in the number of animals was possible without overgrazing the forests. The number of cattle under permit for the 1918 season was nearly 2,140,000, and of sheep more than 8,450,000. In two years there were placed on the forests approximately 1,000,000 additional head of live stock, representing about 25,000,000 pounds of beef, 16,000,000 of mutton, and 4,000,000 of wool.

The season of 1918 strikingly illustrated the advantages which the National Forest ranges offer to the western live-stock industry. Throughout the West the ranges outside the forests were generally in bad shape on account of drouth conditions. The live-stock business is becoming precarious for owners who are dependent upon the open public range; many are closing out, and the number of range stock is being reduced. On the other hand, the use of the National Forest ranges is increasing and their productivity is rising under the system of regulation. Never was the wisdom of Government control of these ranges more manifest than at the present time.

DAIRY PRODUCTS.

The Department endeavored to bring about an increase in the output of dairy products by means of more and better cows, improved methods and practices, and the extension of dairying in sections where the industry had not been fully developed. Continued encouragement was given to the development of the dairy industry in Southern and Western States, to the organization and operation of cheese factories in the mountainous regions of the South, and to the building of silos as a means of providing winter feed.

The food value of dairy products was brought to the attention of the consuming public and their economical use advocated. An extensive campaign was waged to encourage the production and consumption of cottage cheese as a means of utilizing for human food skim milk and buttermilk, large quantities of which ordinarily are

fed to live stock or are wasted. Printed matter on the nutritional value of cottage cheese and on the methods of making it was issued in large editions and widely circulated, in cooperation with State extension organizations, and specialists were sent out to encourage its production and consumption.

THE FEDERAL MEAT INSPECTION.

The Federal meat-inspection service covered 884 establishments in 253 cities and towns. There were slaughtered under inspection 10,938,287 cattle, 3,323,079 calves, 8,769,498 sheep, 149,503 goats, and 35,449,247 swine, a total of 58,629,612 animals. Compared with the preceding fiscal year, these figures represent a decline of 5,000,000 in the total number of animals, but an increase of nearly 1,750,000 cattle and more than 600,000 calves. Condemnations amounted to 206,265 animals or carcasses and 528,481 parts of carcasses. The supervision of meats and products prepared and processed covered 7,905,184,924 pounds, and resulted in the condemnation of 17,543,184 pounds. There were certified for export 2,510,446,802 pounds of meat and meat food products.

GOOD FOOD FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

At the request of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, the Department participated in protecting our military and naval forces against unwholesome foods. The Federal meat inspection, which for years has, safeguarded the civil population of the United States from bad meat in interstate commerce, was extended to include the special supervision of the meat supply of the American Army and Navy. The examination, selection, and handling of meats and fats are in expert hands from the time the live animals are driven to slaughter until the finished product is delivered in good condition to the mess cooks. Inspectors were assigned to the various cantonments, training camps, forts, posts, and other places in the United States where large numbers of troops are assembled and, at the close of the fiscal year, there were 69 such experts with the Army and 30 with the Navy.

MARKET NEWS SERVICES.

As soon as the appropriations under the food production act became available steps were taken to expand much of the regular work of the Bureau of Markets and to institute certain new lines. The