of sheep, exists among sheep in the United States, and that it is a violation of the law to receive for transportation or transport any stock affected with said disease from one State or Territory to another, or from any State into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any State. It is also a violation of the law for any person, company, or corporation to deliver for such transportation to any railroad company, or master or owner of any boat or vessel, any sheep, knowing them to be affected with said disease; and it is also unlawful for any person, company, or corporation to drive on foot or transport in private conveyance from one State or Territory to another, or from any State into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any State, any sheep, knowing them to be affected with said disease. All transportation companies and individuals shipping, driving, or transporting sheep are requested to cooperate with this Department in enforcing the law for preventing the spread of the said disease. Inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Industry are directed to report all violations of this act which come to their attention.

In order to more effectually accomplish the object of the above-mentioned laws, it is hereby ordered that any railroad cars, boats, or other vehicles, which have been used in the transportation of sheep affected with said disease, shall be immediately cleaned and disinfected by the owners or by the transportation companies in whose possession said cars or vehicles may be at the time the animals are unloaded, by first removing all litter and manure which they contain, and then saturating the wood-work with a 5 per cent solution of crude carbolic acid in water. Inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Industry are directed to see that this order is carried into effect.

JAMES WILSON, Secretary.

NOTICE OF ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW.

These orders constitute the notice as to the existence of the disease, and call the attention of transportation companies, stockmen, and others to the provisions of the law. Anyone who violates this law or the regulations made in accordance therewith will be subject to the penalty, and can no longer plead ignorance or lack of notice. Owing to an insufficient number of inspectors during the past years, the Department has not been as active in seeking out and prosecuting offenders against this statute as the importance of the matter demands. There have undoubtedly been many shippers, as well as transportation companies, who have rendered themselves liable to prosecution and who have not been proceeded against, but it should not be concluded that, because the penalty has been escaped in a few instances, this immunity will continue. The inspection force is now competent to deal with this subject, and the Department of Agriculture will hereafter take such steps as may be required to stop the dissemination of this contagion through the channels of interstate commerce. In such action the Department will have the assistance and cooperation of all good citizens, and particularly of all of those who are interested in the sheep industry. There is probably no disease in this country, with the exception of hog cholera, which causes greater losses among the domestic animals than does sheep scab, and at the same time none which is so easily, cheaply, and certainly cured. It is, therefore, dis

creditable to the intelligence and practical qualities of our people that this contagion should still be rampant and continually distributed through the channels of commerce.

All sheep owners who expect to ship or drive their sheep across State lines should assure themselves before the animals are started that scab does not exist among them. In case symptoms of the disease are discovered, the animals should be dipped and cured before they leave the farm. The information in this bulletin is sufficient to enable anyone to cure this disease with a minimum of trouble and expense. There will hereafter be no excuse for those who claim that they are unacquainted with the nature of the disease or with the methods of treatment.

EFFECT OF MEAT-INSPECTION REGULATIONS.

Sheep suffering from scab are affected by the meat-inspection law and regulations, as well as by those mentioned above. Section 6 of these regulations provides as follows:

6. The inspector in charge of said establishment shall carefully inspect all animals in the pens of said establishment about to be slaughtered, and no animal shall be allowed to pass to the slaughtering room until it has been so inspected. All animals found on either ante-mortem or post-mortem examination to be affected as follows are to be condemned and the carcasses thereof treated as indicated in section 7:

(1) Hog cholera.

(2) Swine plague.

(3) Charbon, or anthrax.

(4) Rabies.

(5) Malignant epizootic catarrh.

(6) Pyæmia and septicemia.

(7) Mange, or scab, in advanced stages.

(8) Advanced stages of actinomycosis, or lumpy jaw.

(9) Inflammation of the lungs, the intestines, or the peritoneum.

(10) Texas fever.

(11) Extensive or generalized tuberculosis.

(12) Animals in an advanced stage of pregnancy or which have recently given birth to young.

(13) Any disease or injury causing elevation of temperature or affecting the system of the animal to a degree which would make the flesh unfit for human food.

Any organ or part of a carcass which is badly bruised or affected by tuberculosis, actinomycosis, cancer, abscess, suppurating sore, or tapeworm cysts must be condemned.

Instructions have been issued to inspectors to rigidly enforce these. regulations. Sheep in an advanced stage of scab are feverish and unfit for food, and their carcasses will be condemned. Shippers who forward animals for slaughter in this condition will be likely to lose heavily upon them, as they will be subject to quarantine and condemnation. This is an additional and important reason for curing affected animals before they leave the feeding place.

Failure to observe the laws and regulations as they relate to this disease will in many cases result in hardship and loss. In order to avoid such unpleasant results so far as possible and to facilitate the control of the disease this article has been prepared. It is believed that there has been brought together herein all the information needed by the sheep owner to successfully combat this scourge of American flocks.

INVESTIGATIONS RELATIVE TO SHEEP SCAB.

The Department of Agriculture, acting under authority given it by law, issued the order to be found on page 151, prohibiting the transportation of animals affected with hog cholera, tuberculosis, or sheep seab. Inspectors were placed in the field to enforce these regulations so far as possible, and their reports are embodied in this article. During the spring months of 1897 the Bureau of Animal Industry received information from various sources that its regulations were not being fully complied with, especially that portion which relates to the transportation of sheep affected with seab. It was stated that some transportation companies were not only aware that sheep which they carried were affected with scab, but that they shipped them around points where the Bureau inspectors were located to the feed yards in the vicinity of Chicago. It was therefore necessary for the Bureau to make an investigation of this charge, and this was at once instituted. The inspectors who were detailed upon this work were directed to visit sheep-feeding stations at certain points, find how many sheep are being fed or are fed during the season, the condition when received and when shipped, the points whence the sheep came; and, further, to report upon the condition of the feeding stationstheir vats for dipping, if any, the size of pastures and yards, and the sanitary condition of the sheds. These reports form the principal part of this article.

REPORT FROM DR. N. P. HINKLEY.

On April 17, 1897, Dr. N. P. Hinkley, inspector in charge at Buffalo, N. Y., informed the Bureau of Animal Industry that he was quite sure that sheep affected with scab were being delivered in that city, sometimes escaping the vigilance of the inspectors, and that they were coming from the States of Ohio, Iowa, and Michigan. The conditions which admitted of this clusion of the authorities were promptly rectified. An inspector was stationed at the stock yards, and such instructions were given him as to insure a thorough inspeetion of every head of sheep arriving there. This inspector began his duties at the yards April 1, and on that first day detected and condemned 195 head of scabby sheep and for the next week condemned from one to five double-deck loads. While most of these diseased animals could be detected only by a person of experience in scabies, and showed evidence of recent treatment, yet on each one condemned was found the live mite (Psoroptes communis var. ovis). All these sheep were from Michigan.

All of the yards, chutes, alleys, scale yards, and cars with which these animals had come in contact were thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, under the supervision of the inspector in charge.

Dr. Hinkley was afterwards informed that a certain commission merchant of Buffalo had 30,000 head of sheep at Pontiac, Mich., which he was feeding for the Buffalo market. He was also informed that these sheep had been dipped twice and were supposed to be cured; but shipping them to Pontiac in cars which evidently had not been properly cleaned and disinfected again developed the disease. The Bureau of Animal Industry, under date of April 22, directed Dr. Hinkley to go to Pontiac, Mich., and make a careful inspection of the sheep referred to by him. If any were found to be affected with the scab he was directed to notify the railroads and also the owner of the regulations issued by this Department in accordance with law. The report of this inspector follows:

BUFFALO, N. Y., May 7, 1897.

SIR: As requested in your instructions of the 22d ultimo, I have visited the town of Pontiac, Mich., and vicinity, and made a careful inspection of different flocks of sheep which are being fed there for this and other markets, and which I had reason to believe were affected with the scab.

I arrived at Pontiac on April 27, and after some inquiries located several different ranches where sheep were being fed. The first one visited was about 7 miles distant, and there were there about 4,500 head. They were confined in well-built sheds, but very much crowded for room. It was explained that the purpose of keeping these animals in such close quarters was to hasten their fattening by not allowing them to move around any more than was absolutely necessary. They were well fed, with good, wholesome food-roots, clover hay, corn meal, and wheat bran, with a good supply of water. The sanitary condition of the buildings was fairly good, yet I found about 25 per cent of this herd affected with scab (Psoroptes communis var. ovis) in a mild form. None of them were in an advanced condition or seemed to suffer inconvenience, yet a careful inspection disclosed the presence of the disease upon some part of the body.

These sheep had been purchased at different times, with a number of others (which he had sold), on the Chicago market last fall. They were "Mexican" sheep, and were more or less affected with scab when they were purchased. They had been dipped in the fall in a preparation of Little's dip (a crude carbolic-acid preparation) and were supposed to be cured, as no signs of scab had been seen among them until January 1, 1897. At this time they were again dipped and again supposed to be cured, and the owner was surprised when he learned that the disease still existed in his flock. On inquiry, I found that the necessary precaution of thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting all of his buildings after dipping his sheep had not been taken, and consequently they again became infected as soon as they were placed back in the contaminated buildings.

The owner of the flock was under the impression that dipping the sheep once was all that was actually necessary to destroy the parasite, thus ridding the animal of the disease, and was not aware that the unhatched larvæ were not destroyed by this dip. This error, with the uncleaned and contaminated sheds, was the cause of the reinfection of his flock. I therefore suggested a thorough and systematic cleaning and disinfection of all the buildings, sheds, and yards with which the sheep came in contact, collecting all unused bedding, offal, tags of wool in or attached to the woodwork, carting the same away to be cremated; then to thor