88 ANNUAL, REPORT OP TJIE Off. Doc. 



owners oi" live stock as to tlie desirability of eradicating diseases 

 that damage or destroy their valuable animals. But opjiosition 

 comes when it appears that the measures that haA'e been adopted 

 are not well planned to effect the purpose in vi(^w, or when the 

 measures of repression are more burdensome and expensive than 

 the disease that they are intended to repress. Even in the latter 

 case, in times of serious danger, Mve stock owners will co-operate 

 if the necessity for the measures that it is proposed to employ, is 

 made clear to them. 



As a res-Ill t of the friendly co-operation between the State Live 

 Stock Sanitary Board and the owners of live stock, outbreaks of 

 infectious disease are in most cases immediately reported to the 

 Department, w4th the knowledge that the most effective measures 

 that are authorized and can be employed, w'ill be used in the interest 

 of the individual owmer, as w^ell as in the interest of live stock 

 owners in general. 



The work that comes under my care increases in importance and 

 volume from year to year, in proportion to the growth of the live 

 stock interest of the State, to the extent that domestic animals and 

 the public, through the products of domestic animals, suffer with 

 or are threatened with disease, and to the extent that the work 

 of this office is apijreciated and called for. As Pennsylvania grows 

 in population, there is a constantly increasing need for food pro- 

 ducts of animal origin — for milk and other dairy products — for 

 poultry products and for beef, mutton and pork. A large part of 

 the additional supplies of food stuffs that are required comes from 

 other states, but still the demands upon the farms of Pennsylvania 

 are sufficient to cause a steady increase in importance of those 

 branches of agriculture that are related to the animal industries. 

 The greatest growth has been in connection with the dairy industry. 



Pennsvlvania ranks second among the states of the Union in 

 milk production, and bids fair soon to occupy the first position. The 

 business of ])roducing milk appears to develop most rapidly upon 

 the rather high-priced farms in the most thickly populated sections. 

 This condition long ago gave rise to the business of bringing cows 

 from less thickly populated sections, where land is cheaper and 

 where the cattle can be raised more economically, to those districts 

 where milk is in greatest demand. At first, dairy cows for this 

 use were purchased in the interior of the State and were driven to 

 the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where they were sold to milk 

 producers. Later, the business developed of shipping such cows 

 by rail from the central and western parts of Pennsylvania and 

 from adjoining states. Recently, it has become common to ship 

 cows long distances. Many of the dairy cows in Eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania have come from Tennessee, Missouri and the districts tribu- 



