The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 17, 1917, Page 6

1g Things the A. C. is Doing for Farmers - North Dako BY E. B. FUSSELL 3 HEN Father Noah several thousand years ago made up his well known house-boat party, he invited as guests and passengers two members of the horse family, a lady and gentle- man cow, two pigs, two lions, two tigers, two camels, two giraffes, and so forth, as every child knows. What Noah didn’t know was that he took on some unbidden guests as stow- aways. There were at least two or three ' and probably a few million of the bugs that cause tuberculosis, a whole flock of the germs that give glanders to horses and undoubtedly a lot of little animals with long Latin names that cause hogs to die from cholera. But they didn’t have any microscope on the ark, and Noah and Shem and Ham and the others were happy in the thought that they had on board only the animals they had watched go up the gangplank. ‘When the excursion party came to an end and everybody disembarked at Mount Arrarat the germ stowaways got off with the rest, probably stealing rides on the cow, the horse and the 'pig, and like as not, on the lion and tiger and elephant too. And after “that, wherever one of the big animals went, the germs went right along with them. In this way they rode all over Europe. Some of them, be- ‘yond a doubt, took passage on the Mayflower and their progeny possibly rejoice in that distinction. And event- ually some of them got off at North Dakota, and liking the country, set- tled there. NOAH’S IGNORANCE CAUSED THE TROUBLE If Noah had been a bacteriologist he could have saved a lot of trouble for North Dakota farmers today by watch- ing his passenger list more carefully. But the sad fact is that he wasn’t. He probably wouldn’t have believed in the germ theory if Dr. L; Van Es, head of the veterinary- department at North Dakota Agricultural college, had told him about it. But Dr. Van Es is telling several thousand North Dakota farm- ers about it every year, and they be- lieve him. They believe him because he is getting them results. With Dr. Van Es at their head the farmers every year are lining up for a harder drive against the germ millions. The farmer forces have taken the first trenches and have turned the ends of the germ line. While the farmers probably never will be able to get rid of their enemies altogether, as Noah might have done if he had been a bacteriologist, the battle is going their way. The work that Dr. Van Es has been doing to lead the farmers in their fight is noteworthy. He hasn’t any seven billion-dollar bond issue to back him, just $3000 a year from the state to provide munitions. It was eight years ago that the North Dakota legislature first provided the $3000 annual appropriation, continued since, to allow the agricultural college to manufacture tuberculin, which is used as a test for bovine tuberculosis, mallein, which is used as a test for glanders, and hog cholera serum which ta College is Solving Problems That Confront . the Whole Agricultural World Dr. Van Es in his laboratory at North Dakota Agricultural College. The dark colored liquid in the two bottles is tuber- culin being prepared for distribution to farmers. Dr. Van Es standing by the door. A demonstration hoof operation being performed at the college on the animal’s operating table, with a pony as the patient. is used. as a protective against hog cholera and to some extent as a treat- ment. The products were to be fur- nished without cost to the farmers. It took most of the appropriation for the first two years just to buy the needed equipment. - Then the veteri- nary department started out on the production of the tuberculin, mallein and hog cholera serum. The year 1913 saw a tremendous out- break of hog cholera that tested the resources of the department to the ut- most. The disease had been increas- ing in virulence and extent for several years, and studying the rising ‘“curves of incidence” Dr. Van Es became con- The Veterinary Building vinced that 1914 would see an epidemic far worse than anything that had gone before. DR. VAN ES AT GRIPS WITH HOG CHOLERA Dr. Van Es was faced by a quandary. It was certain that the $3000 a year would not begin to provide for any- thing like a large enough supply of serum for all the farmers who would > need it. One farmer out of twenty, perhaps, would get his serum from the state free of cost, while the other nineteen would be compelled to buy untested, possibly impure and danger- ous serums from eastern manufactur- ers, trading in the farmers’ urgent need and looking for big profits. It was a time when strong measures were needed. Dr. Van Es took them. He determined to buy a large supply of serum at wholesale for the farmers. He had no money to do this. So he laid the case before the board of trus- tees of the college, this being before the days of the single board of regents. The board approved his plan and agreed to see that he got the money. Individually they borrowed $8000 for him. With this money Van Es bought all the serum he could get. Every purchase was given a thorough test: Results in 1914 confirmed his ad- vance judgment that it would be a bad hog cholera year. Hogs were stricken right and left, and demands for serum came-in from north and south, east and west. It was no time at all until the entire $8000 worth of serum that Dr. Van Es had purchased, and all that he had been _able to manufacture at the college, was gone. But all this time Van Es was collecting back the $8000 charging the farmers manu- facturers’ prices for the serum, a little less, in reality, because what serum the college was able to produce was added to that bought from the manufactur- ers, and the price pro rated. And long before the first supply was gone more serum had been ordered from the manufacturers, tested and repacked for the farmers, the borrowed $8000 being used as a revolving fund. Altogether, that summer, the $8000 was used three different times, the demand for serum exceeding all estimates. But there was never a farmer who knocked at the agricultural college door but secured the serum he needed to save his ani- mals, and he secured a tested article below market price. A. C. ACTIVITY SAVED THE PORKERS The same method was followed in combating cholera in 1915 and that year found the back of the epidemic broken. Money was borrowed again, but $5000 proved sufficient to purchase serum. This method is still being fol- - lowed at the college, and will be so long as there is cholera in the state to be combatted and while the college is unable to meet the entire demand by manufacture. The college supplies the farmer at the charge of three- fourths of a cent per cubic centimeter, which makes the serum cost 30 cents a dose. And many a porker has par=- ticipated as the central figure in a feast of pork and beans, roast pork or pig’s kunckles and sauerkraut, who would not. have been able to be among those present if his owner had not happened to have the 30 cents and if Dr. Van Es had not “happened” to have the serum. Hog cholera serum is not the only product of Dr. Van Es’ munitions factory for the war. against animal germs. He turns out large supplies, also, of tuberculin and mallein. Strategy in the fight against germs allows two methods of attack. One is to kill the germs if possible, as it often is with diseases like hog cholera. But if the germs are so thoroughly in- trenched that it is impossible to kill them, as is the case in glanders and tuberculosis, then strategy directs that the animal carrying them be put out of the way, and the germs along with it. That is where the tuberculin and mallein are useful. A little dose of the tuberculin is given a cow, and if a swelling appears or the temperature The welfare of American farms and of nations lies as much in the quick work of laborat;oi'ies as in scientific cropping and commerce. - Quick decisions and positive action, the big men in our educational institutions just the same Read this article and see how a college professor’s “nerve” are required of -as of generals and train dispatchers. averted wide sweeping disaster.