108 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



gest number of dairy cows. For the cattle raising and exporting 

 States the subject is not so vilal. Tlie New England States, New 

 York, reunsylvania and New Jersey are thickly populated, they con- 

 sume a great deal of milk and in them the dairy industry is highly 

 developed. Nearly all of these States are large importers of cows. 

 However, in uppet' New England and in western New York and 

 Pennsylvania, cows are raised to be sold to other sections. Pennsyl- 

 vania purchases each year about 1(),()()() cows from other States, and if 

 only 3 per cent, were tubercular, it will be seen that many new 

 centers of tuberculosis might be established. 



"In order to meet this danger, laws have been enacted by several 

 States requiring all dairy cows and cattle for breeding purposes 

 brought from other States, to be tested with tuberculin. Numerous 

 dilliculties are met with in the enforcement of this law, but these are 

 gradually being overcome, and there can be no doubt that the general 

 effect of this protection is most beneficiai. 



"Among other results, it causes shippers to buy with care and to 

 select sound-looking cows from healthy districts. It also has the 

 effect of making farmers discriminate in the purchase of cattle and to 

 demand tested cows. But there is little advantage in buying healthy 

 cows if they are added to diseased herds. They are so much fresh 

 food for the tubercle bacillus. It is quite as important to extiuquish 

 the fires that are burning in our own herds as it is to prevent the 

 entrance of brands from without. 



"Tuberculosis of cattle cannot be eradicated by force. Successful 

 measures, unless they are so costly as to make them impossible in 

 most countries, require so much prolonged attention to details, so 

 much and such constant care that unless the owner of the herd and 

 his employes are in sympathy with the work, the most exacting law 

 will fail. But why should not the owner of a tubercular herd be 

 anxious to eradicate the disease and co-operate with the State to this 

 end? He will be, provided the method employed is not more costly 

 and burdensome than the disease itself. This has been demonstrated 

 in Pennsylvania. 



"Under the Pennsylvania plan, the State makes no effort to entirely 

 free a herd from tuberculosis, excepting when the owner applies for 

 State aid and agrees to do his part of the work. The owner is requir- 

 ed to furnish help during the inspections, to keep the tubercular 

 cattle entirely apart from those that are sound, to disinfect the prem- 

 ises occupied by them, to correct faulty sanitary conditions, and to 

 do all that he is requested to do, and all in his power to keep his herd 

 free from tuberculosis in (he future. ■ Under these conditions the 

 State makes the inspection and designates the tubercular and the 

 healthy cattle. The animals in an advanced stage of disease are at 

 once appraised and destroyed. Those showing no clinical evidence 



