Commissioner of Agriculture 137 



fiscal year. It will be noted that there has been an increase in the 

 returns from year to year. This is not only due to the general 

 advance in price of meats and hides, but has also been aided by a 

 more uniform and systematic method of disposing of same. The 

 decrease in the number of generalized cases of tuberculosis also 

 adds to the ultimate return, since carcasses of condemned 

 (generalized) animals furnish little remuneration to the State. 

 Attention is called to the advisability of applying these returns as 

 part payment to owners for indemnities due. It is evident that if 

 the amounts obtained by the State could be used to apply upon 

 claims, it would be much more satisfactory than the present cus- 

 tom whereby these receipts are paid into the State Treasury and 

 claims must await appropriation by the Legislature before they 

 can be paid. By applying these receipts directly to payment of 

 claims much more satisfactory results would be obtained. 



GLANDERS 



This disease appears to be slowly decreasing — a fact which 

 may be due to a reduction in the number of susceptible animals 

 in cities on account of the increasing use of automobiles for both 

 pleasure and business purposes. However, the information at 

 hand does not show any material change in the number of horses 

 in Greater New York, the principal seat of this infection. From 

 the statistics it will be found that the number of animals showing 

 physical evidence of the disease is decreasing from year to year, 

 which indicates an encouraging situation and makes the ultimate 

 control of the disease seem possible. 



The adoption of the ophthalmic test has relieved to a consider- 

 able extent the objections to the subcutaneous use of mallein as a 

 diagnostic agent in the detection of glanders. By the use of this 

 comparatively recent method a much larger number of individuals 

 can be tested in an allotted time, and the results seem to be as ac- 

 curate as is indicated by the subcutaneous method. 



In 1914 quarantine was placed upon Greater New York with 

 the object of limiting the removal of animals from the metropoli- 

 tan district without proper examination. This action was taken 

 because of the large number of cases of glanders which are con- 

 stantly being found in the city and the fact that investigations 



