Hearings

Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Can not the State pass laws, and have not some of the States passed laws, absolutely requiring all its citizens to submit to your directions?

Doctor MELVIN. Well, some States have and others have not. In some instances the State authorities have the right to go upon the premises and require proper disinfection, and the live stock remains as a lien for the expenses incurred by the State. That is not the usual rule, though, except in diseases such as the glanders and some diseases of that nature. Usually they stop at a quarantine.

The CHAIRMAN. Your work is much more effective in States which have the law to which you have just referred, is it not? Doctor MELVIN. Well, that is not the general rule. Usually a quarantine is sufficient, because it is obvious that one must move his stock to market, and if he is placed in quarantine he will try to place his stock in a condition so that it can go to market.

Mr. POLLARD. I would like to ask Doctor Melvin a question, suggested to me by the questions put by Mr. Weeks. I understand from your statement, Doctor, that this $25,000 that you drew out of the general expense fund was used largely in keeping free from infection, or reinfection, districts that you had already gone over. I would like to inquire to what extent the Government is being compelled to keep free from reinfection districts that you have already released from quarantine, and have cleared from the tick?

Doctor MELVIN. Probably the best answer I can make is to state what it cost the Government before we commenced eradication in maintaining the quarantine line. A large amount of money was expended for maintaining this quarantine line before tick eradication commenced, varying from about $45,000 to $50.000 a year; and I do not see how it can continue at very much less than that unless we should eventually eradicate it from the entire section. For instance, if we can eradicate it from California there will be no need in the future of keeping anyone in California. It has been our custom to have from one to two men in California the year round to maintain the quarantine line. We have various men scattered all along the line, commencing in Texas and running clear to the Atlantic coast. We have also had to supervise the cleaning and disinfection of the cars that carry the stock out of the quarantine district, and have had to maintain them at these feeding yards where the stock is carried for food and water, and to market, and all that expense. That has, as I say, amounted to between $45,000 and $50,000 a year. I do not see how it can be made any less until we get a considerable area released from quarantine.

Mr. RANSDELL. You would be relieved entirely of that if you had the ticks eradicated from the country, would you not?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes.

Mr. POLLARD. Are there any States that are taking on their own shoulders the work of preventing the reinfection of districts that you have cleared?

Doctor MELVIN. They have to in this way: For instance, we can only maintain a State line; but in consideration of a State guaranteeing to maintain a line through the State, or within the State, we modify our line to conform with theirs; and, of course, if there was a violation of that quarantine line within the State, if cattle passed

25186-08-57

from one section of the State across the line into another portion of the same State, it would be under the State supervision. It would be the State's duty to prosecute and maintain that line; but if they went into another State, then we would have jurisdicion.

Mr. CowAN. I just want to satisfy the committee upon a point as to which I do not think they are well satisfied. That is, they are possibly not informed on it. Is it not a fact that the quarantine line extends about 450 or 500 miles through the State of Texas from near Grier County, Okla., up to the Rio Grande, in the neighborhood of Presidio County?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes.

Mr. COWAN. Is it not a fact that the State of Texas and the cattlemen along that line have been maintaining it for many years to prevent a movement of cattle from below to above the line?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes. They must do that within the State of Texas. Mr. COWAN. Is it not a fact that also along that line, both south of it and north of it, there are special quarantines that the State maintains around certain counties in order to undertake to eradicate the tick and to get the line moved farther south?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes.

Mr. COWAN. Has not the expense of all that been on the State and the cattlemen along in the State, or pretty nearly all of it?

Doctor MELVIN. I can hardly say all of it has been, but the greatest part has been borne by the State.

Mr. COWAN. When we first established the quarantine board in Texas, is it not a fact that there was an agreement between the Agricultural Department and the State, whereby it was established according to the line established by the Bureau of Animal Industry?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir; I think the present State law requires the State board to fix their line in conformity with that of the Department.

Mr. COWAN. Did not the State the first year appropriate $20,000 for the maintenance of that line?

Doctor MELVIN. I do not know as to the sum. I am not familiar with that.

Mr. COWAN. Is it not a fact that when the State has not appropriated a sufficient amount that the cattlemen themselves have made up the money and hired inspectors and kept the line as well protected as the lines you have established along the State lines?

Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. COWAN. Is not that about the only State except California that has maintained any extensive line within the State?

Doctor MELVIN. Well

Mr. CowAN. Well, I do not care anything about that. I wanted to ask these questions, gentlemen of the committee, to show that the State had been doing everything it possibly could to maintain the line which has had reference to the cattle tick. That is not with reference to the glanders or any other diseases, but wholly with respect to the tick.

Doctor MELVIN. In the former Territory of Oklahoma there was an extensive line through there that that Territory maintained at their own expense, and that has been the general policy; but the Department has, as I stated, had some men along this line assisting in the

work.

Mr. COWAN. I would like to ask one other question. You refer to the fact that Texas has not appropriated anything for the purpose of eradicating the tick. That is not quite fair, in view of the fact that that line has been maintained with a view solely for the purpose of preventing the spread of the tick, and to reduce the area wherever they could. It is hardly fair to say that the State did not appropriate anything for it.

Doctor MELVIN. I meant in line with this particular appropriation. Mr. CoWAN. I understand; but the committee might have misunderstood it. The State is spending a large amount of money on really that very subject, although not by name.

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES R. THOMAS, REPRESENTATIVE FROM NORTH CAROLINA.

Mг. THOMAS. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have printed in the hearings the letter of the commissioner of agriculture of North Carolina, Mr. Patterson, of whom I spoke when I was on my feet before.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. That may be done.

Mr. THOMAS. It is contained in the hearings of the last Congress and it is a very valuable letter. Let me say one thing more-not to detain you. It is shown here what the commercial value of this proposition of national aid in cooperation with the States is. It is also shown what the State of North Carolina has been doing, that it has been gradually getting away from the national quarantine laws and has been gradually making additions to its exempted area. Then Mr. Patterson estimates the number of cattle subject to quarantine restrictions in Southern States, exclusive of Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, to be more than 97,000,000; and estimating the increased value, if the cattle tick can be eradicated, at $1 per head (I have no doubt the value is more than that), he estimates that the benefit to the National Government would be about $100,000,000; and that in North Carolina the increased value, 'estimating it to be $1 a head, would be about $10,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, the letter you refer to will be inserted in the record.

The letter referred to is as follows:

NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
Raleigh, N. C., January 23, 1906.

Hon. CHARLES R. THOMAS,
House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. THOMAS: An effort will be made to secure the cooperation and aid of the Federal with the Southern State governments to exterminate the cattle tick.

Cattle raising must play a far more important part in the future in our Southern farm economy than it has done since the war. The tick is its greatest

menace.

This department, taking the lead in this, as it has done in several other measures, has secured the exemption of all the transmontane counties and several of the piedmont counties from the restrictions of the Federal quarantine laws. Getting away from the cattle mountain ranges, some of which have been badly infested with ticks, and reaching the stock-law section of the State, we will make rapid strides eastward. We will soon reach Mecklenburg, Rowan, Davie, Yadkin, and Stokes, and every subsequent year will mark a substantial addition of territory to the exempted area. But it is an interstate question, and the Government ought to give its aid. As our exempted territory extends eastward

longer stretches of Virginia and South Carolina border lines are left exposed, unless these States shall keep faster step in their respective territories.

Let me give you just a few figures:

According to the last report of the United States Department of Agriculture there are in the Southern States, exclusive of Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, 97,474,876 cattle that many cattle subject to quarantine restrictions, except in those localities where the tick has been eradicated.

Suppose these cattle averaged 450 pounds in weight-low estimate, is it not?-and suppose the increase of value consequent upon the extinction of their deadliest enemy is placed at only one-fourth of a cent per pound-another too low estimate the increase of value would at once amount to $109,659,235. Or suppose we say, in a rough way, that a value of $1 per head will follow, and we add to our cattle's worth $97,474,876. But this is not all or the greatest benefit to come.

It has not been safe to import clear-blooded cattle into the tick region of the South. They died. With the tick removed, cattle could be transported here from any section of the world in safety. A new impetus would be given to industry, such as has not been known for many years, if ever before in the history of the South. More cattle of good breeds would be introduced, feeders would utilize their own rich cattle foods, such as pea-vine hay, corn stover, cotton-seed meal and hulls, and our big fertilizer bills might be reduced by the substitution of increased savings of homemade manures.

All this can be done.

will give us your aid. Yours, very truly,

Secretary Wilson is in favor of the bill. I know you

S. L. PATTERSON, Commissioner.

I am trying to make my letter as short as possible, but I want to add that of the number of cattle quoted North Carolina is accredited with 9,175,782 head. They are of larger size than cattle farther south. It would be certainly safe to count their added value at $10,000.000.

The CHAIRMAN. Before adjourning the committee, I would like to make two or three very brief observations. It was suggested here that if notice had been given delegations from the States interested would have been here to ask a hearing. The committee was advised that some such delegations would appear here if they were desired, but the committee thought best not to invite them, partly because we feel pretty well educated on the subject. There was a very exhaustive hearing upon it two years ago, as you all remember, and since then we have had Doctor Melvin before us annually to make a report upon the work he has been doing, and we have had the entomologists of the Department before us to report upon the work they have been doing in the way of the entomological study of the pest. But, in addition to that, and chiefly, we were very sure that the Representatives in Congress of the section most directly interested would not let us forget that this appropriation was expected, and I am sure I can speak for all the committee when I say that the action of the committee will be just as liberal, and in no way different, from what it would have been if there had been a delegation from every county in every State that is affected by this pest. The people of that region are to be congratulated upon the zeal and ability of their Representatives in Congress, which is such that they never neglect their interests, and I wish to assure you, Mr. Ransdell and gentlemen, that when we come to consider the bill in detail we will give every possible consideration to the suggestions that have been made to us here this afternoon. Mr. RANSDELL. In behalf of the delegation I wish to thank you, and to assure you that we feel quite satisfied you are going to give us every dollar you are able to give.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will stand adjourned until a call is issued for a meeting.

INDEX.

Page.

Abel, Mrs. Mary H., remarks of, on nutrition investigations..

858

Accounts and Disbursements, Division of-A. Zappone, Chief of Division, re-

marks of, on-

Organization of the Division..

564

Duties of Chief of Division.

564

Amounts of receipts of Bureau of Forestry.