DAIRY MEETING. I03 



we formerly were. I believe it to be just as important to disin- 

 fect the stable as to take out the cattle. 



Ques. Will you please tell us about the testing of cattle 

 brought into the State? 



Ans. Previous to two years ago our custom was to accept 

 tests from veterinarians from the state in which the cattle were 

 bought. For instance, if a man here would buy a lot of cattle 

 in Ne.w York, a New York veterinarian w^ould test the cattle 

 and send the test sheet to the commissioners, and the commis- 

 sioners would accept it; and it was the same with all other 

 states. But the commissioners felt as though they did not 

 always get an honest test. They had destroyed several herds 

 and had traced the disease back to New York or Massachusetts, 

 and found that the animal must have been diseased when it 

 was shipped into Maine. Two years ago they laid the matter 

 before the Dairymen's Association, and this association went 

 before the committee on agriculture of the Legislature and 

 advised a new law, providing that all animals that were brought 

 into the State for breeding purposes should be tested by order 

 of the Maine commissioners within thirty days after arrival. 

 As soon as the law was approved we commenced on that line 

 of work (a year ago last April) and the first year we killed 

 twenty-three cattle that were brought in from New York, Mas- 

 sachusetts, Pennsylvania and other states, and which were dis- 

 eased when they w^ere brought in here. They had been tested 

 in those states and passed the test, but we killed them and they 

 were all found to be diseased. 



This is the most important part of the law under which the 

 cattle commission is w^orking. During the last three years we 

 have come in contact with nearly every important full blood 

 herd in Maine, and we have killed 186 out of almost 1,000 that 

 have been tested, and I think w^e have made a starting point 

 on the pure blood cattle. I hope the gentleman here from New 

 York has something that will stop tuberculosis from increasing. 

 The commissioners will hail with joy anything that wall prevent 

 tuberculosis among our cattle. We have a herd in Elaine, in 

 which twenty calves have been vaccinated to render them im- 

 mune. The man has facilities and he has a valuable herd, and 

 the commissioners advised him to try this method and find out 



