No. 6. 1>EPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 275 



pointed to draft a law. The Secretary of Agriculture was chairman 

 of this committee, and I know that he worked hard for several days, 

 but the bill was defeated by the Legislature as too drastic, and a new 

 bill, a compromise bill, was substituted and signed by the Governor. 



All dogs must be registered, so that tax can be paid on them, the 

 amount of tax to be fixed by the County Commissioners, and when 

 the tax is paid the owner is to receive from the Commissioners' 

 office a metal tag, which is to be attached to every dog. The other 

 bill was somewhat more implicit as to the character of the tag, and 

 that sort of thing, and one of the members wanted the dog provided 

 with a license for traveling, and if he traveled at night, to be pro- 

 vided with a red light in front and two red lights behind, and to limit 

 his speed to eight miles an hour. 



The dog laws have been violated up to this time. A good many 

 dog laws have been passed, but none of them have been enforced, 

 and if this law has not been enforced it will be on account of lack 

 of public demand and public sentiment in the community in which it 

 is not enforced. It might have been worded a little more specifically, 

 but I think the meaning is clear. The fixing of the amount of the 

 tax is not in this law. This is an amendment of the act approved 

 in 1893, relating to the tax on dogs. The old act of 1893, in reference 

 to that, is still in force. Now, in the sheep-growing district there is 

 a strong sentiment in favor of the enforcement of this law, because 

 any citizen can compel or require its execution. It is very impor- 

 tant, indeed, that something of this kind be done, for sheep raising 

 has been steadily declining. Now we have less than a million sheep, 

 where formerlv we had a million and a half, and this decline of 50 

 per cent, is in the face of a rising market for mutton and wool, and 

 an inquiry into the cause of this decline in the sheep business in 

 any communitj- where it is carried on, shows that it is largely due 

 to the sheep-worrying dog. In the southwestern corner of the State, 

 in Greene, Fayette, Washington and Somerset counties, it has de- 

 clined as coal mining has developed. Little villages have arisen all 

 over these counties, inhabited chiefly by foreigners and dogs, and 

 within ten miles of these villages the sheep industry has been prac- 

 tically exterminated. It is not merely the killing of the sheep that 

 has caused this, for under the old law the sheep owner can claim 

 payment for them out of the dog tax; but it is often the driving 

 and worrying of the sheep that is often more disastrous than if they 

 were killed outright, and, moreover, the small compensation allowed 

 by law when a sheep is killed, is by no means sufficient to cover the 

 loss, and it is very important that something shall be done to reduce 

 the number of worthless dogs in each locality. Under the old law 

 it had to be proven that the dog really killed the sheep before any- 

 thing could be done, but under this Ium' any dog found worrying 

 sheep, or even in an enclosure where there are sheep, can be killed. 



The dog is by far the most noxious animal we have in Pennsyl- 

 vania, and I say that as a lover and breerler of dogs. A dog allowed 

 to run at large is dangerous, and I believe that the enforcement of 

 this law will do much to prevent the spread of the rabies, which 

 is generally spread by ownerless curs. 



Now, another act is to provide for the registration of stallions. 

 This is similar to the Stallion Inspection Law of Mirhlgan, which 

 Governor Hoard says has done more for the improvement of horse 

 breeding in Wisconsin than anything else that has been done wnthin 



