34
THE BATTALION.
The agricultural and horticultural departments are
elated with the opportunity their new building- will give
them for new equipments and the extension of their work.
The chemistry department, under Prof. Harrington,
and the veterinary department, under Dr. Francis, which
are among the most interesting to visitors and the most
important in the work here, are very much crowded, and
the failure of the legislature to provide more room is much
regretted. This should be one of the next improvements
provided for, as it is now nothing less than a crying need.
In the veterinary department are two bones from the
American mastodon, a femur found at Richmond in 1892,
fifty-six inches long, and a tibia found near Colleg'e in
1898, thirty inches long, also a number of mastodon teeth
found in Brazos county.
Dr. Francis also showed how Missouri cattle immune
from Texas fever, and explained his two methods of pre
venting Texas fever, which will save the cattle interests
of the state thousands of dollars on blooded bulls, especial
ly, if applied. The first method is to ship the ticks to
Missouri, as he is doing now, and put them on the cattle
there, so that the cattle may become accustomed to them
before being shipped here. The best method, however, is
to inoculate cattle shipped here with fifteen or twenty
drops of blood from native cattle, which operates like
vaccination as a preventative for smallpox. Seventy-five
head per hour can be treated this way, and the loss is less
than 3 per cent, against a loss of 50 to 80 per cent, with no
treatment. Cattle treated by both methods were shown.
The work of the students in wood and iron in the