(Witness: Melvin.) Doctor MELVIN. No, sir; not to any great extent. Mr. SAMUEL. Not to the extent of developing the proper treatment for those diseases in animals? Doctor MELVIN. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Then you do not make experiments in therapeutics? Doctor MELVIN. In some respects we do, but not to a very great extent. We have been making a number of experiments with different remedies to determine cures for eradicating parasites like scab and mange in sheep and cattle, and in killing the tick which affects the southern cattle. There are a large number of different medical preparations which are used in that line of work. But ordinarily we do not experiment to a great extent with internal remedies for the cure of diseases of live stock. Mr. SAMUEL. Is there any Department of the Government which does experiment along those lines? Doctor MELVIN. I think not. Mr. SAMUEL. Have you ever made an approximate estimate of the general utility of those experiments to the Government and the country at large? Doctor MELVIN. Not as a whole. We have had some estimates made regarding the reduction in the amount of black leg, which attacks young stock. I do not know whether it is given in this report or not. As explaining somewhat the results of this, I might say that the results of the inoculations for the year ending June 30, 1905, as reported to the Bureau by the stock raisers who have used the vaccine, are as follows: Number of reports, 7,235; number of cattle vaccinated, 733,421; deaths, same season, previous to vaccination, 11,381per cent, 1.55; died after vaccination, 3,963-per cent, 0.54. The CHAIRMAN. I did not get the purport of that. Doctor MELVIN. That is, deaths upon the same season previous to vaccination were 1.55 per cent, and the percentage of deaths after vaccination was 0.54 per cent. The CHAIRMAN. That is, there was an improvement of about 1 per cent? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. No; it is a reduction in percentage of deaths to about one-third-that is, it is an improvement of nearly 300 per cent. Doctor MELVIN (reading): After eliminating the number of cattle which die within forty-eight hours after vaccination as a result of being already infected with blackleg at the time of injection, and those whose death has been due to mistakes in performing the operation, the number of cases that died after vaccination is reduced to 3,575, or 0.48 per cent, whereas the losses without the use of vaccine were formerly as high as 10 or 12 per cent of the calves produced annually in the infected districts. That is quite a remarkable showing. The idea of the Department is that by the continuous distribution of this blackleg vaccine, as the disease would not develop, it would naturally become extinct. At the commercial valuation of 12 cents a dose, this saves $160,625 annually. Without its use 20 per cent of young cattle die of blackleg; saving these by treatment is worth $3,107,700 per annum. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. (Witness: Melvin.) Doctor MELVIN. The premises become infected from the carcasses of the dead animals and reproduce the disease, and if we can prevent the death of the animals the disease will be in time exterminated. Mr. SAMUEL. Have you facilities to produce vaccine enough for the demand? Doctor MELVIN. It is only on rare occasions that we have been unable to do that. Sometimes there is an unusual demand for it, and for a short period we would be without enough, and would have to limit the amount to the different owners-that is, we could not supply as much as they would each desire. The CHAIRMAN. You would not have sufficient supply to take care of the unusual demand? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. If you could anticipate that unusual demand, you would have the facilities to take care of it? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. By the additional use of your facilities you can produce enough to meet all the demands made upon you for that purpose? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Is your experimentation in this experiment station confined to external and preventive remedies rather than to internal and curative remedies? Doctor MELVIN. So far as medicines are concerned, yes; but the principal work here is the scientific investigation with reference to the nature and knowledge of these various diseases. The CHAIRMAN. And do you devote time to the investigation of their cure as well as their prevention? Doctor MELVIN. Not to any very great extent through the use of medicine. The main disease which has occupied most of our time has been tuberculosis. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Doctor MELVIN. And the medical treatment of that disease is not considered very beneficial. The CHAIRMAN. That is, it is not practicable? Doctor MELVIN. No, sir; so that our study has been confined to those lines indicated. The CHAIRMAN. That is mainly a question of prevention? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. We have determined how it is sometimes transmitted that animals housed in a stall by themselves, contiguous to another animal with the disease and separated by a high partition not extending clear to the ceiling, would contract the disease. We have made various experiments of that nature in order to determine how it spreads from animal to animal, and the various organs that are affected when it is artificially introduced into the bodies of guinea pigs through the feeding of milk and subcutaneous injection. Mr. SAMUEL, What have you concluded is the cause of its spreading? Doctor MELVIN. We have concluded that the cause of its spreading is most frequently through the ingestion of tuberculous material through eating-taking into the alimentary tract the germs of the disease. We are not inclined to the opinion that it is so generally disseminated through inhalation as has been thought heretofore. (Witness: Melvin.) We have produced generalized tuberculosis in the case of pigs when the lungs would become involved, where the animal was inoculated in the tail. In those cases the animal became diseased without any inhalation whatever; and in the majority of cases where the animal is fed tuberculous material, the lungs will become infected without any inhalation of the germs. Mr. SAMUEL. I suppose that indicates that that particular part of the anatomy is less able to resist the attacks of the microbe or whatever it is? Doctor MELVIN. It is probably carried there through the blood system to the lungs where the blood is oxidized. Mr. SAMUEL. And you get the part that is most susceptible of attack? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. Mr. SAMUEL. Did you publish the symptomatology or diagnoses of those diseases? Doctor MELVIN. We have two books that have been largely distributed; that is, the book on the diseases of the horse, ordinarily known as the "Horse Book," which treats fully of the diseases of the horse and their ordinary treatment, and another on cattle; and we did publish some years ago a report on parasitic diseases of sheep. We have now under preparation a work on the diseases and care of poultry. Mr. SAMUEL. You do not publish those reports of these diseases in the farmers' bulletins generally? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. We have published quite a large number of such reports on different diseases, and also regarding the remedial agents. The majority of our work is confined to contagious and infectious diseases; that is, in this experimental work. The prevention of Texas fever, as outlined in Farmers' Bulletin No. 258, saves annually $3,812,500. The new treatment of milk fever has reduced the mortality from 70 per cent to 3 per cent, as outlined in Farmers' Bulletin No. 205, and this saves $3,350,000 annually. Mr. SAMUEL. Do you carry on any investigation as to the best kinds of foods for the different kinds of animals, stock-raising animals? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. There are a number of investigations now going on with reference to the food of animals. We have one experiment which has been in progress for several years, in the State of Pennsylvania, in connection with the State agricultural college, which is a highly scientific piece of work, conducted by Professor Armsby, where various foods are taken and fed at various periods and tested as to their nutritive qualities. There is a beef-feeding investigation in connection with the Alabama Experiment Station. We have now in connection with our office of animal husbandry an experiment regarding the feeding of poultry on dry and wet feeds of various kinds; and another regarding the feeding of cotton-seed meal, and that is in order to determine if possible the causes of deaths in hogs after feeding this meal for several months. The CHAIRMAN. Do you devote any time to the development of the breeding of horses and cattle and fowls and various animals that are raised on the farm? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. (Witness: Melvin.) The CHAIRMAN. With reference to the creation and improvement of breeds? Doctor MELVIN. We have quite an extensive experiment in horse breeding in connection with the Colorado Experiment Station. At 5 o'clock p. m. the committee adjourned until Monday, January 14, 1907, at 10 o'clock a. m. COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE The committee this day met. Present: Messrs. Littlefield (chairman), Samuel, and Flood. STATEMENT OF DR. ALONZO D. MELVIN, CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY-Continued. The CHAIRMAN. At the adjournment Saturday you were describing the work of the Bureau with reference to the development of breeds of horses and cattle. Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Will you follow your explanation in that respect, stating briefly what you are doing along those lines, and what the purpose of that development is? Doctor MELVIN. The Department in cooperation with the Agricultural College of Colorado has a stud consisting of 19 mares and 1 stallion. The animals were selected for the purpose of breeding a distinct type of heavy harness horse, or, in other words, an attractive and durable large carriage horse. The CHAIRMAN. What breed are they? Doctor MELVIN. They are of the trotting breed-American-bred horses. It is proposed out of this breed, by selection, to establish a horse which conforms quite closely to the hackney horse and the German coach horse. The CHAIRMAN. Where were these horses purchased? Doctor MELVIN. They were purchased by a board at various points in the United States. Mr. FLOOD. What do you cross the standard-bred trotter with? Doctor MELVIN. They are all of the trotting breed, and it is calculated to retain that breed by the purchase of additional sires when necessary. Mr. FLOOD. How are you going to make a hackney out of a standard-bred trotter? Doctor MELVIN. They will not be hackneys, in the full sense of the word, but they will be of that type and will be obtained by selection of the offspring. Those that do not appear suitable for continuance in the experiment will be rejected, and those that are will be continued, and the breeding will be continued along those lines, and, as necessary, additional blood will be purchased of the trotting strain. The CHAIRMAN. You say these horses were purchased by a board? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. A board selected by you? (Witness: Melvin.) Doctor MELVIN. They were purchased before my time as chief of the Bureau. I think the board was selected by the Secretary of Agriculture, but I am not positive. The CHAIRMAN. How long has this experiment been going on? The CHAIRMAN. Do you know what the stallion and the mares represent as an investment to the Government? Doctor MELVIN. Something like $10,000. That in purchase value, first cost. The CHAIRMAN. Do you know what trotting breed lines they follow-what family of trotters? Doctor MELVIN. I do not think they represent any distinct strain of trotters. I have not the pedigree of the sire here. His pedigree has been published in the reports of the Department. The CHAIRMAN. At what place in Colorado is the experiment conducted? Doctor MELVIN. At Fort Collins. The CHAIRMAN. Has your Department any other experiments going on there of any kind? Doctor MELVIN. This is the only one at Fort Collins. The CHAIRMAN. What is the annual cost of maintenance of this experiment? Doctor MELVIN. To the Government, about $3,500. The CHAIRMAN. It has been going on about two years. What has been the result up to the present time? Doctor MELVIN. I think the horses were purchased two years ago this winter. They have this year the first crop of colts by this horse, 14 in number. The CHAIRMAN. Fourteen colts? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. You do not know what family of trotters has been selected, whether the Wilkes or Hambletonian, or which one of the leading breeds? 23848-07-11 |