THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 301 



from the shock of being transplanted to a totally different climate, it is 

 the more valuable on that account, for it is then acclimated, as we say, 

 or, in other words, it has become adapted to the different conditions of 

 life. 



Now, as you know, the climate of the original home of the British 

 breeds has marked peculiarities. The atmosphere of the island is laden 

 with moisture, the summers are cool, the grasses grow rapidly and they 

 contain a large proportion of water. It is quite different in most parts of 

 the United States; but our conditions approach the conditions found in 

 Mexico and South America. British breeds acclimated here may be taken 

 from here to those countries with far less shock, with far less danger 

 of deterioration and disease, than if taken directly from Great Britain. 

 This is a point which should be understood by our own breeders, and which 

 we should endeavor to impress upon the stockmen of other countries on 

 the American continent. 



Among the first questions, however, which we are asked by the gov- 

 ernments of countries to which we propose to export animals are: Are 

 they free from contagious diseases? and, can you guarantee that they will 

 not be exposed to the contagion of any such diseases on their way to the 

 ships which are to carry them? This today is the most important question 

 to all governments that are willing to consider the advisability of admit- 

 ting foreign animals to their territory. Most of you know how, on account 

 of pleuropneumonia in this country, we lost the freedom of the British 

 market for our live cattle over twenty years ago. Since that time our 

 cattle have been killed on the docks where landed within a speciSed 

 number of days. You can readily see that when our animals are once 

 landed without the privilege of shipping to any other market, without 

 the ability to hold them beyond the ten-day limit, our shippers are at the 

 mercy of the English buyers. How many millions of dollars those restric- 

 tions have cost the American farmer never will be known; and all that 

 we can say is that we have lost and are still losing an enormous amount 

 of money because we permitted that disease to remain a few years too 

 long upon American soil. We might just as well have stamped the dis- 

 ease out in 1870 as in 1890, and if we had done so, there would have 

 been no occasion for these restrictions, which now have been permanently 

 imposed. The reason we did not act sooner was that we listened to the 

 counsels of a lot of noisy and insistent individuals who thought they 

 knew all about the subject, but who really were densely ignorant of 

 everything pertaining to it. They claimed there was no pleuropneumonia 

 in the country; or admitting that there was such a disease, they were 

 certain there was no danger in it, or, if they were forced to admit the exist- 

 ence of such a disease, they scouted the idea that the British would ever 

 restrict the cattle trade on account of it. 



"We have had about the same experience in regard to sheep scab. It 

 was scattered all over the country; the stock yards and markets were 

 infected with it; all sheep in transit were exposed to it; and, notwith- 

 standing the inspection, it would break out among our export sheep under 

 the most inconvenient and embarrassing conditions. As a result of this, 



