454 



The Country Gcntkniaiis MagarAnc 



joined regulations, useful as they arc to a certain ex- 

 tent, -will be entirely superseded : — 



" Last May the State Legislature of Massachussets 

 passed an Act for 'The more effectual Prevention 

 of Cruelty to Animals,' the 5th section of which 

 enacts as follows :— ' No railroad company in this 

 State, in the carrying and transportation of cattle, 

 sheep, swine, or other animals, shall confine the same 

 in cars for a longer period than twenty-eight consecu- 

 tive hours, unless delayed by storm, or other accidental 

 causes, without imloading for rest, water, and feeding, 

 for a period of at least five consecutive hours. \\\ 



estimating such confinement, the time animals have 

 been confined without such rest on connecting roads, 

 from which they are received, shall be computed ; it 

 being the intention of this Act to prevent their con- 

 tinuous confinement beyond twenty-eight hours, except 

 upon contingencies hereinbefore stated." The foUow- 

 lowing section gives the railroad company a I'ight of 

 lien for the expenses of " the care and feed of animals 

 so rested," and exempts from claims for damages for 

 detention. 



Not only the company, but the " owner, consignee, 

 or person in charge " is liable in respect of every 

 violation of this la\\- to a penalty of .$100. 



HOW THE AMERICANS DEAL WITH CATTLE DISEASE.'' 



THERE is a subject not of a political but of a purely 

 agricultural character, for which I care much more 

 than I care to ring the changes on political cries. It 

 . is practical. The United States, which acts always 

 as our pioneer on the political highway, has just fur- 

 nished us with a practical example of the manner of 

 dealing with the cattle plague, to which it is easy to 

 point a moral. The disease which has been ravaging 

 that great continent during the present summer was 

 similar in all essential points to the cattle plague which 

 ravaged this country. Its highly contagious nature, 

 the great rapidity of its spread, its fatal character, and 

 the speediness of death in almost every instance, will 

 be recognised at once as facts of our own experience. 

 That disease is indigenous in Texas, just as 

 the Rinderpest has its home on the steppes' of 

 Russia. From Texas it travelled in an incredibly 

 short space of time to New York, and even to Canada. 

 Do not think of the United States as a country the 

 size of Great Britain or of France. The disease had to 

 travel from Texas further than the distance from the 

 steppes of Russia to London. Yet there is no doubt 

 that it did travel that great distance. Our Consul at 

 Chicago states in a despatch that the disease followed 

 the track of cattle from Texas, and that cattle on the 

 prairies which grazed over their track were infected 

 and died. It was thus that the disease was intro- 

 duced into the state of Illinois. A despatch from the 

 Secretary of State for Illinois (the Hon. Sharon Tyn- 

 dale) confirms this account. Some Illinois cattle 

 were subsequently conveyed to Pittsburg, in Penn- 

 sylvania, and other cattle went thence into the State 

 of New York. These cattle unfortunately had con- 

 tracted infection, so that, according to intelligence 

 from New York, dated the 28th of July, whole herds 



* From a speech delivered at tlie Annual Dinner 

 of the Huntingdonshire Agricultural Society, l^y 

 Lord Robert Montagu. 



were swept away, and the State of New York was 

 thrown into a sort of panic. Other cattle carried the 

 disease from Illinois into Indiana, and thence to Chi- 

 cago. A despatch from the British Consul at Buffalo, 

 in Canada, informs us that the disease had broken 

 out in that country in consequence of a drove of 

 apparently healthy cattle having been sent by the 

 Great Western Railway from Illinois to that province. 

 These cattle were not Texan cattle, but they had un- 

 fortunately pastured where some Texan cattle had 

 been. The American disease and the Rinderpest with 

 which we are acquainted are therefore similar in every 

 important respect. It is thus a question of interest 

 for us to see what remedies were found successful in 

 America. In Illinois the disease was stopped by the 

 wholesale slaughter of infected cattle, and by enforc- 

 ing a very stringent law against importation. The 

 law of the State of Illinois is very short, and is to this 

 pui-port : No one may own, or even have on his pre- 

 mises, any Texan or Cherokee cattle. The punish- 

 ment for delinquency amounts to $1000 fine and a 

 year's imprisonment ; besides which the owners of 

 other cattle can institute an action for damages against 

 an offender. In the State of Kansas there is a simi- 

 lar law. The States of Missouri and Ohio pre- 

 vented large droves of cattle which had collected on 

 their borders from entering their territory. This 

 issued in conflicts between the drovers and the autho- 

 rities, and a proclamation from the governor enjoining 

 the belligerents to keep the peace. In the States of 

 New Jersey and Pennsylvania there was the same 

 wholesale slaughter, and by order of the local govern- 

 ment the importation of cattle into those States was 

 also prohibited. Besides all this the local authorities 

 have power to stop and examine cattle on the railways. 

 By virtue of this power several herds were slaughtered 

 at various stations between the Western States and 

 New York. At Chicago, where they all converge, 

 the authorities were not satisfied with the stringent 



