34 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



of cattle picked up from the locality in which the dairy is started, the 

 improvement of the herds will depend largely upon the importation 

 of well-bred dairy cattle. This will undoubtedly result in the introduc- 

 tion oftuberculosis into our herds, and probably, in a limited way, other 

 contagious diseases. 



While we have no means of knowing definitely just what amount 

 of contagious diseases exist in this State, we gain a reasonably ac- 

 curate idea of the existence of various contagious diseases from our 

 various sources of information in regard to them. It has been the law 

 and custom for years for an investigation to be made by the veterinary 

 service on the receipt of a petition signed by ten freeholders. This 

 privilege is well understood by the laymen of the State and is one of 

 the principal sources of our information in regard to the existence 

 of a contagious disease among any sort of live stock. Four years ago 

 the Board of Agriculture established a precedent of recognizing letters 

 and telegrams from qualified veterinarians over the State notifying us 

 of the existence of contagious diseases, and as a result we have enjoyed 

 the general co-operation of the veterinarians of this State in locating 

 and suppressing contagious diseases. The help that the veterinarians 

 have rendered in this line has been of especial value during the past 

 year. By arrangement with U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry, we re- 

 ceive, by return mail, a notice of the arrival at any of the public stock 

 yards of any live stock in a diseased condition from this State. During 

 the past year we have received notices of the shipment to the public 

 markets from this State of 150 cars of hogs affected with hog cholera; 

 24 cars of sheep affected with scab, and 7 cars of cattle affected with 

 scabies. It being impossible to do anything in the way of controlling 

 the hog cholera by tlie ordinary methods of quarantine, no investigation 

 of the source of the infected hogs has been made. In tlie case of 

 sheep and cattle scabies, the investigation has been ordered of the origin 

 of every shipment. The stock pens from which each shipment was 

 loaded were quarantined and required to be disinfected. The veterina- 

 rian making the investigation has invariably quarantined all the in- 

 fected animals found in the neighborhood from which llie shipment 

 originated. 



SHEEP SCAB IN LACLEDE COUNTY. 



There is one exception to this rule, and that is in connection with 

 tlie shipments from Laclede county, where sheep scabies is so widespread 

 among the sheep all over the county that a single visit by a veterinarian 

 would accomplish very little. It will take from 4 to 6 weeks for a man 

 to quarantine all the scaby sheep in Laclede county, and no headway 



