DISCUSSION ON CATTLE DISEASES. 227 



cheese ; but if a germ is within the tuberculous deposit then it be- 

 comes infectious. 



Question. If your position is correct, whj' do the Massachusetts 

 Commissioners refuse to allow Maine milch cows to be sold iu that 

 State ? 



Dr. Cressey. The}- must answer that question. 



Question. Wh}^ do dealers refuse to buy them? 



Dr. Cresset. Because the}' could not sell them. Prof. Stock- 

 bridge, the chairman of the Massachusetts Cattle Commission, has not 

 heretofore considered this a contagious disease. I do not believe, 

 however, the State of Maine furnishes any poorer beef or milk than 

 the State of Massachusetts. I know they have plenty of the dis- 

 ease there. 



Question. "Was it right, in 3'our opinion, to kill the herd at Orono? 



Dr. Cressey. I think under the circumstances the Commission 

 did just right. 



Question. Were there not some that were not diseased ? 



Dr. Cressey. Probably there were. They had been mingling to- 

 gether. Bat it is of no use to make a sensation and convey the im- 

 pression that all the cattle in the State are affected. A few 3'ears 

 ago they had a scare in Illinois. They had a disease among their 

 Jersey cattle that a famous doctor pronounced pleuro- pneumonia ; 

 the}^ quarantined the State against every other State out there, and 

 the decline in the price of Jersey stock in the country was a thou- 

 sand times greater than that of all the animals originall}' quarantined 

 there. That is what I object to, this everlasting hurrah which works 

 such enormous mischief to the stock raising industry'. 



Question. If the barn is kept too warm, will that produce the 

 disease of itself? 



Dr. Cressey. No, not unless the germ is there. Unsanitary 

 conditions have a tendency to rekindle this constitutional taint into 

 morbid activity-, but those conditions do not produce the germs. 

 Of course the surroundings should be sanitarj', neither excessively 

 warm nor too cold. A barn should be dr}' and well ventilated. I 

 do not believe in double boarded barns, unless ventilation is other- 

 wise provided for. 



Question. In order to maintain health the temperature should be 

 kept at about such a degree, I suppose. 



Dr. Cressey. P^xtremes should be avoided as much as possible. 

 When the temperature is kept too high the process of respiration be- 

 comes abnormal, and tends to produce a diseased condition. 



