No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. lOo 



reasoiuibly sure liuit a promising heifer would live to reaeli maturity 

 and bj Let* i)eifoi'niauce testify to their skill as breeders. It was 

 v(.'ry discouraging, and it was unpleasant when theii' customers re- 

 ported, after a few months or years, that the animal purchased Ijas 

 died (tl tuberculosis and that the disease iiad afterwards appeared 

 elsew here in the herd. Advice was given as to the plan that might 

 be followed to repress the disease, but probably it was too formidable 

 an undertaking, for I was not again consulted and a short time after- 

 wards the entire herd was advertised as free from tuberculosis and 

 was sold. 



"(3) Some years ago two car loads of cows from New York State 

 were sold at public sale in one of the counties of western Pennsyl- 

 vania. These cows are believed to have come from one herd. With- 

 in a few months many of them died of tuberculosis, and within a few 

 years all had perished of tuberculosis or had beeu killed or sold on 

 account of the existence or fear of this disease. The veterinarian in 

 this district, a very cautious and skillful man, has told me that he 

 never knew of any tuberculosis among cattle there before the arrival 

 of these particular cows from New York, and that afterwards the 

 disease spread largely in and from the herds of which these cows 

 were members. 



''(4) A herd of cattle famous in Pennsylvania a decade and a half 

 ago was known to be badl}' infected with tuberculosis. Many of the 

 most valuable cows died, the younger cattle were unthriftj-, develop- 

 ment was too uncertain and the owner became dissatisfied. The herd 

 was disposed of at public sale. Tuberculosis in eleven herds has 

 been traced to cattle distributed bv this sale. The following mav be 

 cited as an illustration: A farmer in an interior county of Pennsyl- 

 vania had been breeding cattle for about a quarter of a century and 

 had never had any disease among his cattle other than the simple 

 ailments and accidents that occur as a matter of course. One cow 

 was purchased at the sale just mentioned. This cow did well the 

 first season, but afterwards ran down in condition, and after a long 

 illness she died. Later, other cows were lost in a similar way, and 

 when the herd was tested, it was found to be extensively infected. 

 Many other herds in the locality were tested, but no more tubercu- 

 losis was found, except in one herd that contained a cow from tKe 

 infected herd. 



'^(5) About ten years ago, T was re(iuested to apply the tuberculin 

 test to a herd in which many cows had died of tuberculosis. I re- 

 ported that a large proportion of the cattle were infected. Nothing 

 more was heard by me from the owner; but subsequently I learned 

 that the entire herd had been sold to a dealer who took it to Ken- 

 tucky. 



"(6) Recently, in Pennsylvania, a herd of sixty-five cattle was 



