//(;Tt' the Americans deal i^'itJi Cattle Disease 



455 



laws in the surrounding States ; they were not content 

 with tlie examination of other local authorities, but they 

 enforced a rigid quarantine outside the town on all 

 cattle which arrived /// transitu. In Canada an order 

 in Council was passed altogether prohibiting tlie impor- 

 tation of any cattle from the United States. The mea- 

 sures which were adopted in America were more severe 

 than any remedies which have been devised in this 

 country. The effect of them was that the importation 

 of cattle into New York was entirely cut off, so that 

 the supply was reduced by one-half ; yet the Ameri- 

 cans thought lightly of this in comparison with the 

 greater evil which they might have incurred by 

 greater laxity. The imitators of American manners, 

 however, and the worshippers of American opinions, 

 oppose our attempts at milder legislation here. They 

 seem to have forgotten the calamity which we 

 felt so acutely. They blandly express a hope that 

 the cattle plague will not come again, and refuse 

 to take the precautions to which every other coun- 

 try has been constrained to resort. And on what 

 gromids do they act? They fear lest the price 

 of meat may be raised. Have they forgotten the 

 enormous losses which the country suffered two 

 years ago, and which it may any year suffer again ? 

 Afraid of expending one farthing per pound, they 

 would expose us to periodical losses of 100,000 head 

 of cattle. The Americans are too acute to argue 

 thus ; and yet their condition would excuse them, for 

 they have to guard against an inland supply from their 

 ■own land. They cannot slaughter at the ports and 

 send the meat inland as we can, yet they think it 



worthwhile to .stop the supply altogether. With us 

 • a separate market at every port of landing will suffice, 

 and the supply of dead meat will not be lessened. 

 Nothing less than this will suffice, for the cattle 

 plague defies extemporaneous measures, its approach 

 is so secret and so sudden. It is smuggled in by the 

 blood of a live andapparentlyhealthyanimal, or even by 

 the wool of a sheep. But we are told to trust to the regu- 

 lations of other States. (3n this proposal we have re- 

 ceived a curious commentary from Holland. You are 

 aware that in consequence of the prevalence of sheep- 

 pox in the whole of the north of Germany, we passed an 

 order against the importation of sheep. On the lotli 

 of September a despatch was sent from the Hague, 

 which states that "first-class veterinary surgeons have 

 been instructed to be careful that only healthy sheep 

 should be embarked at Rotterdam for Great Britain. 

 His Majesty's Government hopes by this measure diat 

 all apprehensions existing in England of the conse- 

 quences which might ensue from, the importation of 

 Netherlands sheep into the United Kingdom may be 

 completely allayed." On the i6th the steamer 

 Batavia arrived in Rotterdam with 318 sheep, which 

 the Dutch thought we might safely allow to proceed 

 into the interior. They ^^•ere examined, and foimd ta 

 be infected with sheep-pox. This alone shews, I 

 think, the necessity for a separate market. I confess 

 that I am more anxious about this, and about my own 

 hobby for increasing the productiveness of the land by 

 husbanding the sewage, than I am for most of the poli- 

 tical nostrums of the day. 



PROTECriOX AGAINST FRAUDULENT MANURES. 



MR GILLART, of Wynyard Park, drew atten- 

 tion to this subject at a recent meeting of the 

 North Durham Chamber of Agriculture. He said : — 

 There were two ways of dealing with the question. 

 One was by bringing prominently before the minds of 

 farmers the great practical advantages which the appli- 

 cation of chemistry to the cultivation of the soil was 

 calculated to bring about. This was to be achieved 

 by employing practical chemists to give lectures in the 

 towns and villages of the district in which the Cham- 

 ber was established. This, however, would be a 

 costly mode of introducing the subject, and one which 

 at present the Chamber would scarcely be justified in 

 incurring. Another and very practical mode of giving 

 to farmers the benefits of chemical science would be 

 to institute arrangements for the analysis of artificial 

 manures. The chemical constituents of artificial 

 manures were not sufficiently understood by those 

 who purchased them, and mucli loss and 

 disappointment frequently arose from the want 



of this knowledge. \'ery often farmers were 

 tempted to buy cheajj or rather low-priced manures, 

 and the crops not turning out what they anticipated, 

 they became discouraged, and perhaps in future were 

 led to depreciate and undervalue all artificial manures. 

 This was a doul^le mistake ; it was an error in the first 

 instance to purchase -without a knowledge of its che- 

 mical constituents a manure apparently cheap, but 

 really dear, and it was wrong to suppose that all 

 artificial manures were equally unreliable. There 

 were in the market some excellent artificial manures, 

 and there were others M'hich were downright imposi- 

 tions. Unfortunately, the least informed and the 

 poorest farmers were generally the victims of those 

 who manufactured and sold these worthless prepara- 

 tions. The better class of farmers, from their more 

 extended knowledge and information, v/ere able to 

 take care of themselves ; but the small farmers \\-ere 

 those who chiefly suffered by spurious preparation;;, 

 such as those to which he referred. He could mention 



