28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Now one of the main lines of the work of this bureau is its 

 inspection work and quarantine work. Many of you are doubt- 

 less familiar with the attack of foot and mouth disease which 

 occurred here in 1902. You remember it started in Massa- 

 chusetts and spread over into Rhode Island, Vermont, and 

 New Hampshire. I do not believe it came into Connecticut. 

 It did not, if I am correctly informed. If the disease had not 

 been stayed it would, of course, have prevented the exportation 

 of our meat. Commerce on that line would have been actually 

 stopped if we had not found some way to control it. Now 

 state boards of agriculture and the state authorities worked 

 together with the Department of Agriculture in quarantining 

 and bringing about an entire control of that disease, and as the 

 result of the quarantine and of that work, over four thousand 

 animals were slaughtered and disinfected. Congress made a 

 special appropriation of $500,000, I believe it was, to aid in the 

 eradication of the disease. The Department paid very nearly 

 $130,000 for anim.als which were condemned and destroyed. 

 So effective was that work that the year after the introduc- 

 tion of the disease, the year after it became broadcast over 

 those three states, it was nearly stamped out, the quarantine was 

 raised, and our exportation of meat went on the same as ever. 

 Now those are things we hardly think of as being the work of 

 the Department, but when you come to consider some of the 

 efforts of the Department I want you to take all these matters 

 into consideration. We have maintained a quarantine all along 

 the coast and all along the borders of the United States to pre- 

 vent the importation of infectious diseases. Sometimes we 

 must do it. Some years ago there was a ship inspection law 

 passed, providing for the inspection of ships, and for the treat- 

 ment of those in an unsanitary condition certain regulations 

 were prescribed. Now how does that affect the farmer ? Just 

 in this way. It made the ships more cleanly and safe, and as 

 the result of that all the insurance rates fell over one hundred 

 per cent. So it goes all along the line. 



Now let me call attention for a few minutes again to this 

 inspection work which is being carried on. We have here and 

 there in connection with the great packing establishments of 

 the coimtry, men who are examining all these meats for ex- 

 portation, examining the carcasses to see if they are diseased 

 or in proper condition for food. Last year experts in the serv- 



