ANNUAL MEETING}. 55 



It would have been much easier to have presented the bare figures 

 for these several facts, but if the presentation in this manner may give a 

 better conception of the enormity of the business and that our losses on 

 meat products alone are greater than would be necessary to supply the 

 needs of the largest city in the State, then my object will be accomplished. 



I shall not deal Avith the advantages that might come from better 

 breeding, the losses because of the indefensibly poor business methods in 

 managing dairy herds, the superiority of certain feeds or their preparation 

 in a certain manner, as tliese are the topics for the various l)reeders' asso- 

 ciations. I shall deal only witli some of the problems concerning the losses 

 sustained from disease. These losses are real losses because the product 

 has been produced and the owner does not realize for his time or lal)or in 

 producing it. 



Tlie problem is not a simple one, as it involves phases for which the 

 public is not yet prepared. It involves certain police control of some of 

 the contagious and infectious diseases, i)etter veterinary service among 

 practitioners, a better knowledge of preventive measures among the own- 

 ers and a larger research after practical measures for control. You ma.y 

 be relieved to Icnow that the panacea is not to introduce a course of veter- 

 inaiy science in tlie country or common schools, as is so often recom- 

 mended for agricxdture, nature stiuly, and now for tlie latest fad— forestry. 

 I would not even recommend a special course in veterinary science at the 

 State Agricultural College at the present time, although the number that 

 might desire to enter miglit l)e equal to that in the agricultural course. 



To l)egln with, we must divide the losses due to disease into two 

 classes, that which is preventable and that which is l)eyond our control. 

 Animals will wear out. some will become the victims of accidents, others 

 will contract disease due to the work, care, exposure and other uecessary 

 factors, and a large ninnber l)ecome affected with infectious diseases; the 

 means of the accumidation of such infection we either do not know or can 

 not conti'ol. We do not know liow to control intluenza witli all its compli- 

 cations, strangles in colts, or even to limit the apparently simple sore eyes 

 or sore mouth of cattle to the herd in which it first appears. It may break 

 out in tile next lierd two or tliree miles aw.-iy. and no Iviiown means of com- 

 munication exists. We do not even know all the factors in the dissemina- 

 tion of the swine plague and hog cholera, and some of those that we do 

 know are not withiiw)ur control. This is only a hint at the list that might 

 be cited. Proliald.v it miglit lie better to (piallfy the statement Ijy saying 

 that we do not know practical means for control, as there is a difference 

 between being long on theory and short on practical application of facts. 

 The question remains, do we do as well as we know how. and do we make 

 the best efforts to know how? The State exercises police control over 

 glanders, and by the stamping-out process has reduced the number so nuicli 

 that only three cases were found between the months of INIay and the first 

 of November. Recently we found it necessary to destroy twenty-six head 



