COST OF PRODUCING WOOL.

ELLIS RAIL.

Relative to the cost of producing wool in the United States, it is rather hard to estimate the cost of same, since there are no figures concerning the cost of wool alone. The cost of keeping individual sheep a year is approximated by various men as from $2 to $2.50. The relative returns from wool as compared with the returns from the lambs is usually about half as much for the wool as for the lambs. Now if it costs $2 to $2.50 to keep a sheep and the returns from it are credited one-third to the wool, the cost of production should also be credited one-third to the wool, the figuring on this basis, it would cost from sixty-six cents to eighty-five cents per head. Figuring from this basis, of course the cost of wool per pound would depend on the number of pounds the sheep would shear. The average clip per head in Nebraska is about seven pounds, which would throw the cost per pound at something like ten to twelve cents for production. I notice a statement in a recent issue of the Sheep Breeder, in which a man from Nebraska figures out that it costs him seventeen and a half cents per pound to produce wool, but it seems to me that possibly his figures are a little exorbitant. The items which would be taken into consideration in the production of wool would be the interest on the money invested in the sheep, the feed, the shearing, and also the dipping of the sheep and the labor incidental to their care. The interest would amount to about 11⁄2 per cent of the cost, the feed about 84 per cent, the shearing approximately 10 per cent, while the remainder would be charged up to the dipping and additional labor.

The average life of a sheep as a wool producer varies so much with the different breeds that it is hard to approximate an average for all sheep. The fine wool sheep live approximately ten years, possibly longer, while the mutton breeds do not live more than two-thirds as long. The great majority of the sheep in the United States are either Merino or of Merino extraction, and therefore I presume the average life of sheep in this country is probably eight years.

As to the effect on land value and fertilization of sheep ranging thereon sheep add materially to the value of the land each year, because they graze very evenly over the entire area and the manure resulting is distributed in the best possible manner. Sheep manure is especially high in nitrogen and is quite equal in other necessary elements to almost any other form of animal manure, so that on the whole sheep manure is more valuable than that produced by any other of our domestic animals. I do not know the exact value of it, but comparatively speaking, the value returned to the land would be greater than that of any other of our grazing animals.

Sheep ordinarily dress 50 per cent on the average. The average clip

of wool is seven pounds, which would take 7 per cent more, while the green hide without the wool would probably weigh about 7 to 10 per cent of the carcass. The amount of glue and similar by-products I have no conception of at all, but the remainder of the carcass aside from the mutton, the wool, and the green hide, would go to make up the green fertilizer and the glue, etc. I am sorry I cannot answer this question a little more fully.

Figuring the shrinkage in wool from the unscoured to the scoured condition, depends very much upon the quality of wool to start with. Fine wools shrink much more than coarser wools and we have a wide range of variation in the shrinkage of various sorts of wool. The Government duties on wool that is imported are based on the assumption that wool shrinks two-thirds its weight, but this is rather high for a great many sorts of wool. It is probably approximately true of the wools that are imported but these are mostly on the heavy or fine wool kind. The territory wools which come from our range country shrink heavily, possibly to the amount of 60 per cent or more, but there are many classes of wools grown in the United States which do not shrink much more than half this. The average clip of wool for 1905 and the average shrink of the same was estimated by the government as amounting in total to 57 per cent only, that is, that the amount of wool produced after it was scoured ready for the mills to use, had shrunk 57 per cent, which would be considerably less than 66 2-3 per cent. Manufacturers figure on 25 per cent loss from the scoured wools until the time it goes into cloth. That is, four pounds of scoured wool would make only three pounds of clothing.

TUBERCULOSIS.

DR. P. JUCKNIESS, LINCOLN.

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by a specific organism microscopical in size which enters the animal body either by the alimentary cannal or the respiratory tract, or may be introduced into the system by inoculation. The tubercle bacilli does not grow or multiply in nature excepting in the animal body or blood drawn from an animal. The tubercle bacilli when expelled from the body may live for months and when taken into the body again through the respiratory tract or the alimentary canal has the power of penetrating through the mucous membranes or may be taken up through the lymphatics or enter the blood stream and be distributed to any part of the body. Lesions of tuberculosis may be found in any organ or glands of the body. When the lesions are extensive, the muscular structures and also the bones are involved. Tuberculosis affects human beings, cattle, swine, chickens, and other animals which are of minor importance.

Experiments have been carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture as well as other investigators, showing that the bovine type of the tubercle bacilli taken from a cow affected with generalized tuberculosis, has been changed to the human type by growing it on solidified human blood serum. The tubercle bacilli of human type originally obtained from human sputum, after passing them through cattle were changed to the bovine type. The tubercle bacilli originally obtained from a man after being passed through a sheep was also changed to the bovine type of tubercle bacilli, which indicates that the human being can become affected from the bovine type of tuberculosis. Experiments have also been carried on showing that the tubercle bacilli will live in butter for eight months or longer without losing its vitality, which clearly demonstrated the possibility of transmitting the disease from all dairy products obtained from cattle affected with tuberculosis, and also from the cattle which are exposed to the affected cattle, as animals are very likely to carry some of the infection upon the surface of their skin, and when being milked small particles of the infection may be dropped off into the milk pail and in this manner the germ be introduced into the milk from animals which are perfectly free from tuberculosis.

Regardless of the question of the communicability of tuberculosis from animal to man and the bearing of animal tuberculosis on public health, it is a well known fact that this disease causes heavy financial losses to the live stock industry of this state; and while the saving of human life affords the highest motive for combating tuberculosis, the prevention of financial loss, is alone sufficient reason for undertaking the eradication of the disease from our farm animals. The loss per annum through tuberculosis from farm animals and their products, in the United States, is estimated at twenty-three millon dollars.

Tuberculosis has progressed to an alarming extent in our state and is undoubtedly on an increase, as no measures had been taken against it in Nebraska until a short time ago and then the measures were entirely inadequate to cope with the conditions. The animals principally affected are cattle and hogs. The disease spreads very rapidly among cattle that come in close contact with each other as in dairy cattle and purebred herds. Experiments made by the Bureau of Animal Industry, as well as other experiment stations, have proven that one cow affected with tuberculosis will infect a number of healthy animals, when exposed to the diseased one, in a very short time. It has also been proven that the disease is easily communicated from cattle to hogs by the common practice of giving hogs skimmed milk and allowing them to feed on their excrements. The usual dissemination of tubercle bacilli in cattle is through the feces.

Tuberculosis of cattle may be acute and run a rapid course from time of infection to death. As a rule it is insidious, chronic, and slowly progressive, and the bodies of its victims are able to adapt or adjust themselves to the gradually increasing destructive changes that it causes, until quite extensive harm has been done or vitally important organs have become seriously involved. The result is that the disease may be present in the body a long time without external manifestations of its existence. It may attack any part of the body singly or several organs at the same time.

The economic advantages of eradicating tuberculosis from farm animals are too apparent to require extended discussion. They will come to the individual stock raiser and dairyman as well as to the public and to the nation. Breeders are beginning to understand that it is unprofitable to go on raising cattle while tuberculosis exists in their herds. The practice is becoming more general for buyers of breeding and dairy cattle to have such animals tested before placing them in their herds, and the breeder who can give assurance that his herd is free from tuberculosis has a decided advantage in making sales. With the agitation in favor of a more wholesome milk supply there is a growing demand for milk from healthy herds at higher prices, and as this demand increases the dairyman who cannot show a clean bill of health for his cows will find it more difficult to market his products.

To overcome the great losses before mentioned is worth considerable effort and expense. The benefits to follow from the eradication of tuberculosis from farm animals are so great and so obvious that the necessary expenditures, even though they must be heavy, may be regarded as a highly profitable investment.

All cattle in the state which are to be used for dairy or breeding purposes should be tested with tuberculin and tagged or branded so they may be identified for future reference. All animals reacting to the tuberculin test, indicating that they are affected with tuberculosis, should be tagged or branded as reactors and those passing a satisfactory

negative tuberculin test should also be branded or tagged as tuberculin tested and passed. The reacting animals should be immediately segregated from the healthy or passed animals and either sold for slaughter, subject to inspection, only at such establishments where federal inspection is maintained in the state, or placed in quarantine and used for breeding purposes only, according to the Bang method. The premises should be thoroughly disinfected and in herds where the disease is found, the tuberculin test should be repeated at intervals of six months, and after the disease has apparently been wiped out, the test should still be applied once a year, until it is known beyond doubt that infection does not remain and has not been re-introduced.

Investigations of tuberculosis in this State for the past two years has demonstrated that the disease is quite prevalent in catle and hogs. In dairy disricts about 28 per cent of the cattle tested were found to be affected; among the pure bred herds from 10 to 50 per cent and in some herds as high as 90 per cent found to be affected.

The Number of Cattle Tested in the State from June, 1909, to November,

About 3 per cent of all hogs slaughtered under federal inspection at South Omaha are found to be affected with tuberculosis. This per cent could be greatly reduced, and in time the disease could be entirely eradicated if all the hogs which were sent to market for slaughter were tagged under a system so that when any were found tuberculous on post-mortem examination, they might be traced back to the place of origin, thus locating the centers of infection. Steps could then be taken to test all dairy or breeding cattle upon such premises and those found affected, disposed of as previously suggested.

It is a well established fact that the source of infection in hogs is through feeding products of tuberculous cattle and excrement and also animals which have died from tuberculosis.

The source of infection should be removed, the premises thoroughly disinfected and such other measures taken as would be applicable in such cases.

Number of Cattle and Hogs Slaughtered under Federal Inspection at South Omaha, and Number Found to be Affected with Tuberculosis.