REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL

INDUSTRY.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY, Washington, D. C., September 28, 1918. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the operations of the Bureau of Animal Industry for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918.

Dr. Alonzo D. Melvin, chief of the bureau since 1905, died December 7, 1917, and the undersigned succeeded to the position December 10. In Dr. Melvin's death the bureau and the department sustained a severe loss. A sketch of his life and work and a tribute to his memory appeared in the Service and Regulatory Announcements of the bureau for November, 1917.

Respectfully,

Hon. D. F. HOUSTON,

Secretary of Agriculture.

JOHN R. MOHLER,

Chief of Bureau.

WAR ACTIVITIES.

INCREASE IN ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

In striving to do its part in meeting war conditions the Bureau of Animal Industry has concentrated its energies on increasing the yield of animal products needed for food and clothing. The main object of the year's work has been to bring about the production of more beef, more pork, more mutton, more poultry and eggs, more milk, butter, and cheese, and more hides, wool, and fats. The work has been such as to emphasize especially the fundamental principles of live-stock production and to promote better methods of breeding, feeding, and caring for farm animals and the constructive development of the live-stock industry, while at the same time continuing the necessary police and sanitary service provided for by law.

The efforts to stimulate production have been directed along two principal lines: First, through meetings, news articles, bulletins, pamphlets, etc., to encourage the live-stock raiser to increase his herds and flocks and the yield derived from them; second, assisting the stock raiser to conserve his live stock after it has been produced by aiding him in keeping his herds and flocks from being decimated by disease.

Much of this work was made possible by the congressional appropriation in the food production act, and much of it has been carried out in cooperation with State authorities, agricultural colleges, and other agencies.

PIGS AND POULTRY.

Especially fruitful results have been obtained in increasing the production of pigs and poultry. The campaign for pork production was planned for an increase of 15 per cent in 1918 over 1917, to meet the needs as estimated by the Food Administration. Activities in the fall of 1917 were designed to stimulate the increased breeding of sows, while during the spring of 1918 efforts were made to save as high a proportion of the young pigs as possible. The response has been good and conditions favorable, and while full and accurate returns for the calendar year are not yet available, the indications are that the desired increase will be realized, at least in weight if not in numbers.

The poultry campaign reached every part of the country and already has brought large results. The slogans "Hatch Your Chickens Early" and "One Hundred Hens on Every Farm, One Hundred Eggs from Every Hen" have been followed to a noticeable extent. The same is true of the appeals to people in towns and cities to keep small back-yard flocks, thereby utilizing table scraps for the production of poultry and eggs for home consumption. People also have been urged to preserve eggs during the season of plenty, to be consumed in time of scarcity, and printed directions for preserving eggs in water-glass solution and in limewater were widely circulated. It is known that enormous quantities of eggs have been preserved in these ways. Other features of the poultry campaign were the advocacy of the production of infertile eggs to avoid losses from spoilage, and of the early marketing of surplus cockerels so as to promote the production of infertile eggs and the conservation of grain. Poultry raisers have been advised also to give more attention to the quality, breeding, and selection of fowls and to grow as much poultry feed for their own use as possible. The eating of more poultry and eggs has been encouraged so as to reduce meat consumption and release a larger quantity of meat for shipment overseas.

In the pork and poultry increases the boys' and girls' pig and poultry clubs have had a creditable share.

BEEF CATTLE AND SHEEP.

For the production of beef, stockmen in all parts of the country have been urged to carry sufficient numbers of cattle to make the fullest possible use of pastures and roughages that otherwise would go to waste. Cattle feeders have been shown how to save grain for human consumption by substituting other feeds for their stock. Assistance was given in the transfer of about 150,000 cattle from drought-stricken areas in Texas to States lying to the east, where feed was plentiful. Efforts have been continued to bring about the raising of more cattle in the areas freed from ticks.

Sheep husbandry was included in the program for increased production. The emergency work has consisted in arousing greater interest in sheep raising, giving assistance to prospective raisers in obtaining satisfactory stock and equipment, discouraging the slaughter of useful breeding ewes, and assisting farmers in preparing their wool for market.

COMBATING ANIMAL DISEASES.

The efforts to induce increased production of live stock are closely related to the control and suppression of animal diseases. In the past our farmers have suffered with equanimity losses that from a national point of view are now more serious than ever before, and the bureau has taken more energetic efforts than ever to reduce these losses. The normal work in that direction has been greatly enlarged and quickened.

The eradication of southern cattle ticks has been pressed vigorously, with the result that the area released from quarantine in the last fiscal year is the largest released in any one year since the work was begun, in 1906. Territory amounting to 67,308 square miles in 10 Southern States was released during the year because of having been freed of ticks, making a total of 379,312 square miles since the beginning, or 52 per cent of the original quarantined area. With the release of the entire State of Mississippi from quarantine in December, 1917, a wedge of free territory has been forced through to the Gulf of Mexico. The method of eradication consists in the systematic and regular dipping, in a standard arsenical solution, of all cattle in a community, throughout the season. The cost of tick eradication has been found to be from 18 to 50 cents a head of cattle, while the enhanced value of each animal is greatly in excess of this, one canvass having shown an estimated average increase of $9.76. The eradication of the ticks is not only overcoming heavy losses but permits the raising of high-class beef cattle and the development of dairying in sections where neither of these industries could be successful while the ticks remained.

In all the tick-infested States the work of tick eradication has reached a point where local option in the matter has ceased to be effectual. Unfortunately in certain counties the voters and county' officials remain inflexible in their refusal to accept Federal or State cooperation. This condition can be overcome only by specific State legislation requiring county authorities to provide by a certain date sufficient dipping vats and dipping materials and requiring that all cattle in the county shall be dipped under Federal or State supervision every 14 days for 8 months, beginning in April, and that State quarantine regulations be strictly enforced. Such legislation has resulted in the freeing of 31 counties in Mississippi and the release of the entire State from quarantine. A similar State law is being enforced in 42 parishes in Louisiana this year, and in 1919 a law of the same character will become effective in 65 counties in Texas. The enactment of similar laws is under consideration in other States. Such measures promise to hasten greatly the completion of the work.

Hog cholera is undoubtedly the greatest impediment to increasing our hog production. The present methods of control by farm sanitation, quarantine, and the application of antihog-cholera serum have met with marked success in reducing and preventing the disease. The emergency appropriation enabled the bureau to extend its cooperation to 33 States. Data compiled by the department show that the losses from hog cholera in 1914 amounted to $75,000,000, while for the year ended March 31, 1918, they were but $32,000,000, a reduction of more than 50 per cent in less than five years. 97335°- -AGB 19186

Reports from inspectors indicate that there has been a further reduction since the last estimate. Stated in another way, the country-wide death rate from hog cholera in 1917 was but 42 per 1,000, the lowest in 35 years and a wonderful contrast to the 144 per 1,000 in 1897 and 118 per 1,000 in 1914.

The protective serum has been used at public stockyards during the last year in a way to increase the output of pork. It often happens that a farmer ships his hogs to market when they are not ready for slaughter, because hog cholera has appeared in the neighborhood, or for some other reason. Formerly it was customary to slaughter all hogs promptly after their arrival at public stockyards, whether they were in fit condition for slaughter or not, since such yards were usually infected with cholera, and there was danger that if pigs were shipped from the yards to farms for further growth and fattening they would soon contract the disease and die, besides infecting other hogs on the farm. It is now the practice to treat these immature pigs with serum in the stockyards and send them to farms where they are fed and allowed to reach maturity and a proper degree of fatness. After that they are shipped back to market and yield many more pounds of pork and lard than if they had been slaughtered in the first instance. This considerable saving has been made possible by the bureau's supervision of the commercial proparation of serum under the law, thus making available a sufficient supply of reliable serum. Only serum produced by licensed establishments is used at the stockyards.

Tuberculosis, the most widely distributed destructive disease that now menaces the live-stock industry, recently has been made a special object of attack. In cooperation with State authorities and live-stock owners a campaign has been undertaken in 40 States along three lines-namely, the eradication of tuberculosis from herds of pure-bred cattle, the eradication of tuberculosis from circumscribed areas, and the eradication of tuberculosis from swine. In the beginning the efforts are being concentrated on the first project, since the pure-bred herds are the foundation of our breeding stock. A plan which was adopted in December, 1917, by the United States LiveStock Sanitary Association and by representatives of breeders' associations and approved by the Bureau of Animal Industry has been put into operation with the cooperation of a large number of herd owners. With the consent of owners, the herds are tested with tuberculin, and any diseased animals found are removed and the premises cleaned and disinfected. Subsequent tests are made at proper intervals. By this means there is being established a list of pure-bred herds from which persons may buy breeding stock with reasonable assurance that it is free from tuberculosis. The first accredited list, consisting of more than 200 names of owners of herds of pure-bred cattle, representing tests made up to the end of the fiscal year, has been compiled and printed for distribution to breeders. The list also contains 900 additional herds that have passed one successful test, but they must pass another annual test before becoming accredited.

Heavy losses of horses have resulted from influenza or shipping fever, especially among animals collected and shipped for war purposes. Since the United States entered the war, the bureau has

extended its cooperation to the War Department and to State and local authorities at assembling and shipping points, with a view to minimizing the losses following exposure to this disease. Horses are inspected for influenza, those found affected are segregated, and the barns, stables, corrals, cars, etc., used in handling them are cleaned and disinfected. Though this work is yet in its incipiency, sufficient progress has been made to show that the losses resulting from this disease can be greatly reduced.

Larger forces and greater efforts have brought further progress in the eradication of the parasitic diseases known as scabies of sheep and cattle. These diseases now linger in only a few small portions of the country. Greater efforts have been put forth, also, to control, reduce, and prevent blackleg, anthrax, hemorrhagic septicemia, contagious abortion, dourine, parasites, plant poisoning, and other causes which operate to reduce live-stock production.

DAIRY PRODUCTS.

As the dairy industry of the United States is being called upon more and more to shoulder the burden of supplying the world's needs for dairy products, the bureau has endeavored to bring about an increase in the output by means of more and better cows, better methods and practices, and the extension of the industry. Special efforts have been made to maintain and, if possible, to increase the size of dairy herds. The consuming public has been impressed with the vital properties of milk and its products, and has responded heartily to appeals to use dairy products well and wisely but without waste. Continued encouragement has been given to the development of the dairy industry in the South and in the West and to the organization and operation of choose factories in the mountainous regions of the South. The building of silos has been promoted as a means of providing succulent winter feed for dairy cows and other live stock.

Special attention has been given to the fuller utilization, for human food, of skim milk and buttermilk, large quantities of which ordinarily are fed to live stock or wasted. The high food value of dairy by-products has been emphasized alike in the city and on the farms. Printed matter pointing out the value of cottage cheese as a food and telling how to make it has been issued in large editions and widely circulated. Specialists have been sent out in cooperation with State extension organizations to encourage the production and consumption of cottage cheese and to demonstrate how it is made and the various ways in which it may be used satisfactorily as a meat substitute. This work has led to the greater consumption of cottage cheese and the release of quantities of meat for shipment

overseas.

WHOLESOME FOOD FOR MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCES.

The bureau has cooperated to the fullest extent with the War and Navy Departments in providing our military and naval forces with an abundant supply of good food and in protecting them against unwholesome products. The Federal meat inspection, which for years has protected the civil population of the United States from bad meat in interstate commerce, has now been extended to include