y6 agkicl'i.tukl; of maixe. 



chapters to it. it has been repeated time and time again in the 

 State of Maine. There was an excuse for it at one tmie, it was 

 practicaUy the only thing a man could do, unfortunately. He 

 bought cattle with the best judgment available, and he bought 

 diseased cattle and bred the disease. He could not do any other 

 way. JJut that time has passed. The man who goes out now 

 and does that thing has only himself to blame for it. He can 

 have his cattle tested when he buys them. He can be as sure 

 of the health of the animal as of the other qualities, and if he 

 does not buy tuberculosis he will not have it. When a man 

 has tuberculosis in his herd he has bought it sometime, some- 

 where. He did not breed it there at first, he just bought it. 

 He does not always know just where he bought it, but he cer- 

 tainly bought it somewhere. But we do not need to do it now, 

 and the man who continues to buy tuberculosis and sell his cat- 

 tle to the State is almost criminally negligent. The history of 

 the herds of registered cattle in this State is not one to be proud 

 of. The commissioners tell us that 20 per cent of the registered 

 cattle, that have been tested in this State have reacted to the 

 tuberculin test. That is a high percentage, I do not suppose 

 there are over one or two per cent of all the cattle that are tuber- 

 culous. Why are there 20 per cent of these and not a higher 

 percentage in the State? It is just this way: The, man who 

 has built up a registered herd of cattle has had more chances to 

 buy it than a man breeding native stock. In the past he could 

 not avoid buying it. 



Ques. Is there any danger of carrying the disease in cloth- 

 ing? 



Ans. Yes, sir, probably some little danger, but when I say 

 a man buys the disease that practically covers the whole of it. 

 There may be a case where, a man who has tuberculosis and is 

 coughing and spitting around carelessly will give it to the ani- 

 m.als but that seldom happens. It is just possible, too, that a 

 man may carry dust, enough from one contaminated stable to 

 another, but we may almost disregard that. 



Ques. If you have an animal in your stable that has tuber- 

 culosis, and the rest of them are breathing those germs are 

 they bound to get the disease anyway? 



