Commissioner of Agriculture 303 



on this principle as regards imports and since 10(30 Great Britain 

 lias not come under the curse of an extended invasion. 



On every ground, efficiency, promptitude and economy, this 

 resort is to be commended above all others in such cases. Even if 

 the imported animals are of extraordinary value, by reason of their 

 high individual quality, pedigree, or prospective progeny, they 

 cannot be considered for a moment in the face of a possible infec- 

 tion of the millions of cattle, sheep, goats and swine of the nation. 

 No animal is or can be so valuable that it can be put in the balance 

 against the 180,500,000 cattle, sheep and swine of the United 

 States, to say nothing of their yearly products, or of the cost of 

 suppression of a plague when introduced and disseminated. 



EXTINCTION OF A MORE WIDELY EXTENDED INVASION" 



When aphthous fever has already secured a material foothold 

 in a country, the questions of economy and efficiency in the relation 

 to existing conditions must bo fully considered and will often 

 prevail in setting aside the harsh and sometimes dangerous resort 

 of a uniform slaughter of the diseased, exposed and suspected. 

 Such a modification in the system of executive work will neces- 

 sarilv demand material changes in ('(inducting the various acces- 

 sory or subsidiary measures. Some, however, are so fundamental 

 and so absolutely essential to success, that any relaxation of them 

 would be but an invitation to failure, and they should be applied 

 with even greater stringency because so much more is now required 

 of them. 



ABOT.TSII ALL MOVEMENT OF RtfMINANTS AND SWINE IX IXFKCTKD COUNTIES OK 

 TOWNSHIPS AND IN THOSE IN PROXIMITY TO AN INFECTED CENTER 



Nominally quarantines have been imposed in Great Britain 

 and the European continent wherever aphthous fever gained a 

 foothold but in practice it was rarely the case that an effective 

 arrest of movement was ever secured. Thus, in France the order 

 of 1882 imposes a quarantine on " courts, enclosures and pastures ' 

 where infection has been found, and yet allows work oxen to be 

 used on the roads under special license. It recognizes that live 

 stock on the way to market are likely to be exposed to infection, 

 but in the market those only were impounded that were actually 

 diseased or in direct contact with the diseased. Live slock that 



