48 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



for hog cholera control work. This appropriation was not made. 



Detailed mention of this matter is made to show the results 

 in the past, that we may begin in time to plan to prevent a repe- 

 tition of another such loss in the future. Probably three-fourths 

 of the total loss from hog cholera came directly from hogs ship- 

 ped into the various neighborhoods in the State. If farmers had 

 made a practice of quarantining for 25 or 30 days, all stock hogs 

 which had been shipped and the appropriation of $6,000.00 had 

 been made, I believe that at least $6,000,000.00 of the loss could 

 have been saved. Unless we make due preparation for the future, 

 and take up the work of hog cholera control in the proper way, this 

 same loss will occur from time to time in the future as it has in 

 the past. It is almost impossible to ship hogs from one place to 

 another without getting them exposed to the cholera. As long as 

 the State allows them to be shipped from place to place without 

 restriction, just so long will enormous losses from cholera occur. 



By some authority the shipment of all stock hogs ought to be 

 restricted. The shipper ought to be required to disinfect the car 

 used. He ought to be required to keep the hogs quarantined for 

 30 days after arrival at point of destination before they are turned 

 in with other hogs or offered for sale. If, in the quarantine period, 

 a disease appears among them, the whole lot ought to be shipped 



l 



to market for immediate slaughter, observing due care to follow 

 with proper disinfection, or be slaughtered and burned and in- 

 demnity granted their owner by the State. 



This regulation may be either embodied in a statute or the 

 power conferred upon the Governor to prescribe such regulation 

 by proclamation, as the emergency might require. 



A close study of the history of this last outbreak shows plainly 

 wherein efficient control work would have prevented the most, if 

 not nearly all of it. With the information gained by experience 

 with the outbreak just passed, it seems reasonable that with effi- 

 cient laws and the necessary funds, another outbreak can be made 

 very limited if not prevented altogether. As a further evidence 

 of this fact, we will notice that in the five years during which 

 Missouri spent nothing in the control of hog cholera, and lost more 

 than $8,000,000.00 from the disease, the Dominion of Canada spent 

 less than $100,000.00 in control work and lost less than $25,000.00. 

 In other words, the State of Missouri is out $8,000,000.00 plus the 

 loss of many of our registered herds, and the whole Dominion of 

 Canada is out $125,000.00. The work we are planning now was 



