28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



capital, slow to purchase thoroughbred animals for the im- 

 provement of their herds ; and, besides, they have been the 

 means of placing restrictions on our trade abroad, which 

 cause an annual loss of more than enough monev to remove 

 every trace of this bugbear from every herd which is now 

 affected. When pleuro-pneumonia invaded the State of 

 Massachusetts, and the nature of the disease was recognized, 

 you wiped it out of existence by exterminating every affected 

 herd ; but your good example has not been followed as it 

 should be by other States, and so the old question comes up 

 again from year to year, and is more pressing to-day than it 

 has ever been before. Our work at the Department is neces- 

 sarily limited to a study of the nature of the outbreaks 

 which are supposed to be caused by this disease, to watch- 

 ing the centres where it regularly occurs, and to quieting 

 the apprehensions raised by the many false alarms. How 

 much better it would be if, in co-operation with the State 

 authorities, we were able to purchase and destroy every in- 

 fected herd, and quarantine the premises until every trace of 

 the disease had disappeared. 



Our cattle trade is not the only one which has its restric- 

 tions, however, for the pork products, which make up so 

 large a part of our exports, have been shut out of many 

 countries because a small part of them are found to contain 

 trichinae. It is true that most of the trichinae are destroyed 

 by salting, and all of them by cooking ; but we want to be 

 able to say that the most carnivorous of our German friends 

 can satiate their appetites with the rawest kind of uncured 

 pork, and still not be in the remotest danger from this pecu- 

 liar enemy of the Teutonic race. And while the great mass 

 of our hogs are raised upon beautiful pasture lands, at a dis- 

 tance from every variety of offal and filth, this ought to be 

 true ; but unfortunately a small proportion of trichinous hogs 

 do find their way to our markets, — where they come from 

 and how they are infected is not yet clear. We have com- 

 menced investigations which we hope will throw sufficient 

 light upon this subject to make our pork such as our 

 ffne pasture lands and the vegetal^le diet of our hogs 

 should produce — by far the finest and the healthiest in the 

 world. 



