536 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



tlie cattle plague return, week ending May 2G, tlie disease lias been 

 reported, since its fii'st appearance, in 25,968 farms, sheds, or other 

 places, in which 438,681 cattle were found ; it would hence appear 

 that the average herd contains nearly 17 head of cattle (16,893) ; and 

 on the improbable assumption that small and large herds are equally 

 liable to attack, and applying this proportion to the 4,785,836 head 

 enumerated in Great Britain, it might be inferred that the island 

 contains at least 283,301 separate herds. On this assumption, out of 

 283,301 herds, 25,968 suffered more or less from plague; 257,333 

 sustained no reported loss. These numbers are in the proportion of 

 10 to 1 ; out of eleven herds 10 have escaped, and 1 has been attacked ; 

 eleven of these herds contain 186 beasts; and of the 17 beasts in the 

 herd infected, 9 were attacked ; of them 5 died, 3 were killed under the 

 disease, and 1 recovered : 8 were unattacked, but 2 of the 8 were 

 " slaughtered healthy " by way of precaution ; th^^s leaving 6 alive 

 unattacked, which, with the 1 recovering, gives 7 survivors out of the 

 original herd of 17. Such would be the average case. 



Let us assume that the 11 farms form a parish under one landlord. 

 Then a farmer might lose the whole of his stock by pleuro-pneumonia, 

 or by rinderpest ; and what, if uninsured, is his situation ? He might 

 appeal, after the loss, to the pity of his 10 neighbours, who, if he had 

 lost 90Z. worth of stock, might replace it by giving him out of their 

 charity 9?. apiece.* Or he can appeal to his landlord. How different 

 would be his position if he and his neighbours had paid lOs. a-head 

 before the loss into an insurance fund on which each member had a 

 just and equal claim ! He would get his 90Z. as a matter of right, on 

 business principles. 



I should mention that jirobably more than double the number of 

 owners, assumed above, made returns of cattle, sheep, and pigs to the 

 Inland Revenue surveyors ; and that, as small herds were less liable 

 to attack than large herds, it is possible that the average herd may not 

 exceed ten. 



Taking the head of cattle in Great Britain at 4,929,645 in ordinary 

 times, it appears that rather more than 4 in 1 00 have died or have 

 been killed on account of rinderpest. The proportion was 1 in 23. 

 Of those treated to the end, 79 per cent, died, 21 recovered ; and 

 it may be inferred that if none of the cattle attacked had been 

 killed, the loss then would have been 3-945 per cent., or very nearly 1 

 in 25 of all the cattle existing. It is certain that all the cases of 

 rinderpest have not been reported in the small herds ; and, upon the 

 other hand, undoubtedly many deaths from other diseases figured in 

 the returns, as the diagnosis of the disease was at fii'st difficult. The 

 returns give the nearest approximation we can get to the loss by 

 rinderpest. The returned loss of cattle is 200,905 ; or, allowing for 

 animals attacked and unaccounted for, about 210,000. At lOZ. a-head, 



* Formerly, before fire insurance was invented, it was the established practice 

 to make almost every fire a case for an appeal ad misericordiam. Collections 

 were made in the churches, of which our parochial archives, we are told, contain 

 abundant proof. The appeals for relief became so frequent as to give rise to serious- 

 complaint. — f^J. Brown, ' J. S. Society,' 1857.) 



