No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 293 



Why do we want to suppress tuberculosis? That is the vital 

 point; why do we want to do it? So far as tuberculosis, transmit- 

 ting that disease to the human family, they tell you that pasteuriza- 

 tion will do away with that danger. Now then we get back to the 

 economic proposition, we get back to your own welfare regarding 

 your cattle, and the question is, do you want to breed and keep on 

 breeding tuberculosis among your cattle? You can make your herd 

 more profitable if you have a perfectly healthy herd, a herd not only 

 free from tuberculosis, but free from every other disease. The 

 product of those cows will command a higher price, and it has often 

 been said they want us to do these things, but they won't pay for it, 

 and I want to tell you right now that they will pay for it, you 

 can compel them to pay for it. Why do they demand improvements 

 and conditions that increase your expense for the production of 

 milk, unless they are able and willing to supply a remedy, which is 

 to give you more for your product. 



Now, then, again, your cattle are worth more money if they are 

 tuberculosis-free, so that I could continue pointing out where it is 

 to your advantage to eradicate tuberculosis from your herd if they 

 have it or to keep it out if they haven't got it. You all know that 

 tuberculosis is a specific disease; therefore, it must be caused by a 

 specific thing, and in this instance it is caused by a living organism, 

 a micro-organism, and an organism tbat is not apparent under ordi- 

 nary circumstances to the naked eye; but, nevertheless, it has to 

 live and it has to eat, so to speak, to live. As a matter of fact, its 

 habits are identical with the habits of a human being; I won't say 

 identical, but they are somewhat similar, physiologically. Now, to 

 have tuberculosis, you must have the seed of tuberculosis just as 

 you must have the seed of a peach tree to develop peaches, to grow 

 peaches or to grow a tree. You cannot have tuberculosis unless 

 you have the specific cause of tuberculosis; Now remember that. 

 Tuberculosis does not arise from filth or dirt or bad ventilation 

 or unsanitary conditions of a barn; it cannot; it is impossible; you 

 must have the seed of the disease. 



Now, the question is, how are you going to get rid of this seed? 

 How are you going to get rid of tuberculosis? The only one way is to 

 detect the seed on your premises, in your cattle, and get rid of it. 

 How are you going to do that? As T told you, this organism v 

 grow and all it needs is the proper soil, all it needs is fertile soil. 

 It is planted just the same as anything else; but it has got to have 

 the soil to grow; if it does not have that soil, it won't grow and it 

 won't develop. You can grow this organism outside of the animal 

 body; you can grow it in a laboratory; you supply this seed with 

 favorable food and put it in an incubator at the temperature of the 

 body and leave it there, and these minute microscopic organisms 

 grow and thrive and they practically eat up the food that you 

 put there for them and the result is that they have waste products 

 just the same as a human being has waste products. 



Now these waste products are utilized in the detection of tuber- 

 culosis in cattle. These waste products, treated in various ways, 

 which I will not go into, are what is known as tubercular; it is the 

 product of the growth, the artificial growth, of the tubercle bacilli. 

 Eemember this organism is grown; you've got to get the organism. 

 First, you have got to plant it in a media upon which it will feed. 



