CO Rinderpest Precautions and Remedies. 



also sluiced out with it daily ; and every cow was tarred just 

 above the nostrils. This herd was in a position of no ordinary 

 danger, as three owners of adjacent land were losing beasts, and 

 the infected farms were only separated from Mr. DumbrelFs by 

 ,1 hedge. A fourth herd was also suffering within a quarter of a 

 mile. One of Mr. DumbrelFs shippons was bounded by the 

 high road on one side and by a footpath on the other, but the 

 cows were kept as private as possible, and no fat stock was 

 l)rought on to the farm. These precautions were attended with 

 complete success. 



Major Gunter's Wetherby farm was in a deeply-infected 

 parish, and cattle were dying or being slaughtered almost daily, 

 close up to the park gates, for months. Chloride of lime was 

 used liberally, but the Major's main reliance was on the very 

 strictest observance of the isolation principle. The Duchesses 

 and the rest of the cattle were divided into several lots of two 

 each, and placed in small sheds all over the six hundred acre 

 occupation ; the yards attached to these sheds were netted 

 round the bottom, so as to keep out dogs, hares, rabbits, and 

 other " travellers." The herdsman and his assistants never went 

 near any other cattle or person engaged about cattle on any 

 pretence whatever ; and if the Major had been out hunting, or 

 anywhere else in the country, he never entered the sheds until 

 he had changed his clothes. One valuable bull was slaughtered 

 after a slight accident, rather than run the risk of bringing 

 a veterinary surgeon to attend upon him ; and when the butcher 

 came for fat sheep they were driven out of the field for him 

 Avhile he waited with his dog on the road. 



The Warlaby herd were in nearly as great peril, and had 

 an equally happy escape. For six months the plague was Avithin 

 1^ miles of them, and nearly three hundred beasts went down 

 cither by disease or pole-axe. The last outbreak was within 

 400 yards of the farm-buildings, and the fate of this great herd 

 seemed to tremble in the balance. Vaccination and Macdougall's 

 disinfectant were freely used, but Mr. Thomas Booth's main 

 reliance was on burning tar in braziers at several points of the 

 farm-yard. These fires were carefully looked to the last thing at 

 night and the very first thing in the morning, and might have 

 been smelt down wind for a couple of miles. So much for 

 successful preventives — quantum valeant. 



Secondly, as to remedies. In the case of Mr. Davies, of Mere 

 Old Hall, near Knutsford, preventive measures failed, simply, 

 as he believes, because, when the grass came, he placed his cattle 

 in the field for a short time daily, out of the influence of chlorine 

 gas. In this belief he is confirmed by the experience of his near 

 neighbour Lord Egerton of Tatton, whose milch cows and feeding- 



