The Cattle-Plague. 283 



fortune that this country liad not agricultural statistics. At the 

 present time they were generally collected throughout Europe ; there 

 were indeed but three excerptions — Spain, Turkey, and England. He 

 hoped that, after what had occurred, there would be no opposition to 

 their collection. 



A great deal had been said about disinfectants, and they were nauch 

 indebted to the Professor for his excellent remarks with regard to 

 them ; but he should have been glad if something had been said about 

 Mr. McDougall's compound, which he (Lord Cathcart) had himself 

 used. As to his own farm, he had made a sort of magic circle round 

 it, and so far he had escaped the plague. It was, however, most im- 

 portant to bear in mind the capricious nature of this disease. Many 

 l^ersons have said in conversation, " Oh, I have had the disease, and I 

 shall not have it again." Now, in the North Eiding the cattle-plague, 

 after killing a certain number of animals in a j^articular district, had 

 gone away, and after a time (perhaps two or three months) it had 

 returned and killed almost every head of stock. That had been espe- 

 cially the case in the neighbourhood of Malton. 



As regarded railways, it had been shown, on the highest authority, 

 that the conveyance of cattle by trains had caused the spread of the 

 disease. No man could tell what animal was infected, and what animal 

 was not. When there had been dropjjings on a i)articular part of a 

 railway in the passage of the train, the animals on an adjacent farm 

 might sniif and smell them, whether solid or liquid, and would any 

 one ventm-e to say that the plague had not been propagated to a great 

 extent in that way. 



Some persons said that the cattle plague was a farmers' question ; 

 but he (Lord Cathcart) would affirm that it was not a farmers' question 

 so much as a public one. No one had alluded that morning to the 

 importance of milk. Philanthropists and educationists might labour-, 

 but if children were deprived of milk, or had not a sufficient quantity 

 of it for the formation of the bones, the constitution was sure to suffer, 

 and the after consequences would be most serious. This considera- 

 tion made this question not a farmers' question only, but a national 

 one. 



There was one other point which it was essential to observe — it 

 was, in fact, the turning point in the discussion — namely, that con- 

 fidence was a plant of slow growth in the agi-icultural bosom. They 

 were asked why the disease was not dealt with in this country as it 

 was in Aberdeenshire. The truth was, that stamping out was simply 

 a question of money ; and they all knew that money did not flow 

 where there was not confidence. Moreover, they might stamp the 

 disease out, but how were they to prevent it from retui*ning ? The only 

 other point with which he would detain them — a point which he 

 desired to impress on agriculturists generally — was the importance of 

 the present. Now, if ever, was the time when something effectual 

 might be done. If they put off action till the grass came, and the 

 cattle had ceased to be tied up, he did not see what could be done. 

 They must determine to work together as one man to get rid of this 



