BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 131 



CONCLUSIONS FROM EXPERIMENTS. 



The results of the experiments indicate clearly that by pursuing 

 one or the other of the systems followed the losses from hog cholera 

 can be reduced to a minimum and the industry of hog raising greatly 

 increased in a given area. The progress of the work and the reports 

 of field inspectors, however, lead to the belief that at the present 

 time such marked success in reducing losses from hog cholera as is 

 reported can not be expected with a smaller number of inspectors 

 or with a less amount of work in each county. Success could be 

 attained only through the employment of an immense force of men 

 and the expenditure of enormous sums of money. The eradication 

 or the control of hog cholera is not merely a question for the Federal 

 Government, because the Government can not succeed without full 

 and adequate cooperation on the part of State governments and 

 farmers themselves. It seems that at the present time a country- 

 wide campaign for the eradication of hog cholera would be ill- 

 advised. Before an active campaign for control and eradication is 

 begun the various States should ha\e more effective laws governing 

 diseases of live stock and more extensive organizations for enforcing 

 such laws. 



There is need for the further training of the farmers by experienced 

 men in methods of preventing the spread of disease, so as to induce 

 a greater willingness on the part of the farmer to do his part and to 

 make individual sacrifice for the benefit of the community. 



Although some States are now in a fairly good position in these 

 respects, it seems that if they should work alone without simultane- 

 ous effort on the part of all other States they would be constantly 

 exposed to the menace of reinfection and to the discouragement of 

 having their labor go for naught because of infection brought from 

 other States. Until the country is prepared to undertake a real 

 campaign for eradication or permanent control the function of the 

 Federal Government should be for the present largely advisory, 

 assisting the States to form stable organizations among farmers, and 

 to secure proper distribution and administration of potent anti-hog- 

 cholera serum, so that the greatest amount of good may be accom- 

 plished in the way of saving infected herds. 



It seems that the eradication of hog cholera from the United 

 States, if it can ever be accomplished, must be a work of many years, 

 and no one plan can now be suggested which gives reasonable promise 

 of success. In the meantime farmers should have explained to them 

 through lectures, demonstrations, and literature the nature of hog 

 cholera, the ways in which it is spread, and the best methods of com- 

 bating it. The anti-hog-cholera serum should be made more readily 

 available. This might be done through the establishment of serum 

 stations or depots in each county in the State, to be maintained by 

 the State or the county. Each farmer of the State should be ac- 

 quainted with the location of the nearest serum depot and be allowed 

 to obtain serum at the lowest cost for good serum. With one man to 

 represent the State or Federal Government in each county, and to 

 act in a general supervisory capacity over the distribution of the 

 serum and its use, a great amount of good might be accomplished. 



