No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGTUCULTURE. 135 



lu Deiimaik this plan has beeu in operation for a number of years, 

 and the prevalence of tuberculosis has been steadily diminished by 

 means of ii. .Not only has this system worked well in that it has 

 resulted in the repression of tuberculosis of cows, but it is evi- 

 dent that along with this economical advantage, no sanitary dis- 

 advantage has appeared. This procedure is especially applicable 

 to Denmark, a butter-making country, because it is the practice 

 there for all of the creameries to pasteurize the cream and to steril- 

 ize the skim milk before they are used for the manufacture of butter 

 or for feediag animals. On this account, the milk of cows that have 

 reacted to the tuberculin test, is at no market disadvantage. It 

 may be disposed of as readily and for as good a price as other milk. 

 In this country, however, it is difficult to dispose of milk that has 

 to be pasteurized. There is no detiuite market for this milk. It is 

 regarded with suspicion and, generally, can be disposed of only at 

 reduced prices. Practically, therefore, under oui* market condi- 

 tions, the use of milk from reacting cows is not profitable excepting 

 on farms where there are adequate facilities for pasteurizing milk 

 and where butter is made. The market disadvantage to which 

 such milk is subject is the result of ignorance and prejudice. 

 People who are not fully informed upon this subject refuse to use 

 for butter-making, milk from reacting cows even after this milk 

 has been pasteurized and made wholesome. On the other hand, 

 they do not hesitate to buy and use milk from tubercular herds, and 

 sometimes from very extensively^ tubercular herds that have not 

 been inspected. They do this with the knowledge that tuberculosis 

 is a very prevalent disease of dairy cattle, and they make no effort 

 to ascertain whether the cows furnishing the milk they use are 

 tubercular or not. In other words, they will use the milk from 

 a tubercular herd without hesitation or question until this herd 

 has ()een inpected and the animals that are most dangerous have 

 been removed and the milk from the other members of the herd, 

 and in the earliest stages of infection, has been rendered perfectly 

 inocuous and wholesome by pasteurization; when this safeguard 

 has been established and the milk is infinitely better than it was 

 before, the former purchaser will refuse to receive it. 



This strange situation nmkes it necessary to adopt special meas- 

 ures and establish new conditions, if the milk of cow'S that have 

 reacted to the tuberculin test is to be used safely and properly. 

 I have suggested, in a previous report, that arrangements could be 

 made to permit the concentration, upon farms set aside and 

 equipped for this purpose, of cows still in good condition that are 

 known to be tubercular through having reacted to the tuberculin 

 test. If a man could make a business of maintaining a large herd 

 of this description, he could afford to provide the equipment that 



