EXTRACTS FROM CATTLE COMMISSIONERS" REPORT. 27I 



table, so nourishing or so digestible as raw milk and does not 

 so well fill the bill for infants' food. 



To an outsider it would seem that instead of spending so 

 much time, effort and money skimming over the surface, estab- 

 lishing hugh depots here and there, hospitals and sanitoriums by 

 the wholesale, the most commonsense proposition would be 

 to commence at the root of the evil and get after the tuber- 

 culous cow. Yellow fever in the last 50 years has destroyed 

 only 70,000 persons; but tuberculosis claims 150,000 every year 

 as its own. Like the ^Minotaur of old, consuming his annual 

 tribute of youths and maidens, so tuberculosis is annually call- 

 ing for its victims and will continue until the elementary prin- 

 ciple of destroying the source is put into effect. Athens paid 

 her yearly tribute to the bull-headed monster with the flower 

 of her young blood, until a Theseus arose to destroy. The 

 world has gone mad over sanitation and sanitary science ; but 

 the bacillus of tuberculosis is just as deadly dressed up in a 

 clean suit, as if it were dressed like a tramp. Clean tie-ups and 

 clean cows should be insisted upon and a clean product will be 

 the result; but no amount of cleanliness will ever make up for 

 the diseased cow, and a Theseus is needed as badly today as 

 ever in the olden times. The disease does not need washing, it 

 needs destruction. If ever tuberculosis is brought under control 

 among our herds, it will be after a crusade against the tuber- 

 culous cow. 



SAXITARY CONDITIONS. 



Much has been said and done along sanitary lines by the 

 Cattle Commissioners, in the way of remodeling tie-ups, adding 

 more light and more space per animal and educating dairymen 

 to a higher degree of cleanliness so far as we have the power 

 by the law. ^^'e can only disinfect and clean up premises where 

 disease is found, to which much more attention has been paid 

 within the last few years, as experience has show'n that if dis- 

 ease gets into a tie-up, it is there to stay unless driven out. New 

 cattle put in there will become diseased and it is just as essential 

 to disinfect as it is to destroy diseased animals. The cost of 

 disinfection for the last two years has been about three per 

 cent of the appropriations, and will continue fully as large if 

 good work is to be done in the future. The following "Card" 

 system has been established and whenever disease is found, the 



