68 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



It is false economy to withhold the expenditure of money in the 

 eradication of a contagious disease when the loss from the disease 

 is a hundred-fold what it would cost to prevent it. With methods 

 now available of immunizing hogs against cholera the prevention 

 and eradication of any and all contagious diseases of live stock 

 is an absolute certainty. Once completely eradicated, the loss of 

 stock from contagious diseases and the cost of their half-hearted 

 control will be stopped. 



Heretofore, through lack of funds, we have had to confine our 

 efforts toward the control of contagious diseases to work on gland- 

 ers, sheep and cattle scabies, Texas fever and a few diseases that 

 it has been the custom for years to try to control. The Texas 

 fever work alone, incomplete as it was, took $3,600 of the $8,100 

 allowed for the past year. It will require all of the $8,100 to prop- 

 erly control Texas fever and prevent losses from it. The appropri- 

 ation for the lines of work that we have heretofore undertaken 

 should be increased from $16,200 to $20,000. 



In addition, an appropriation of $20,000, making $40,000 in 

 all, ought to be secured for immunizing hogs against cholera and 

 answering calls to inspect dairy herds for tuberculosis. The finan- 

 cial gain from the former will amount to enough in a single month 

 to repay the entire State appropriation. The eradication of tuber- 

 culosis from our older dairy herds, and starting the thousands of 

 beginners in the dairy business with sound herds, is a matter of 

 too vast importance to admit of any estimate in dollars. It is 

 enough to say that unless the spread of tuberculosis among dairy 

 cattle is promptly stopped it will ruin one of the greatest indus- 

 tries of this or any other state. With tuberculosis prevalent among 

 the cows in our dairies we can never hope to stop the loss of human 

 lives from this disease. I therefore recommend that the State 

 Board of Agriculture ask for an appropriation of $40,000 for the 

 control and eradication of contagious diseases of live stock. 



Respectfully submitted, 



D. F. LUCKEY. 



