MONTHLY REPORT. 



Department of Agriculture, 



Washington, February, 1866. 



Although Congress, as soon as it convened, passed an act forbidding the im- 

 portation of cattle, and all parts of cattle, as hides, hair, ^., in order to protect 

 the country against the introduction of the cattle plague, yet no legislation, 

 either State or national, has yet been had to meet the emergency arising from 

 its introduction, should it unfortunately be imported. All the active energy of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, who has the enforcement of the law of Congress iu 

 his charge, may not be successful in preventing its introduction. In such an 

 event, who is to deal promptly and efficiently with the evil ? The country 

 would be placed in precisely the condition in which Great Britian found itself 

 upon the importation of the disease into its borders. Those interested in the 

 foreign cattle trade asserted that the plague originated in the London dairies, 

 and whilst the controversy on this point Avas violent, the action of the Privy 

 Council hesitated. The pages of our reports will show the fatal consequences. 

 Ireland was protected first by a law similar to our own, and lately by providing 

 for prompt action, if the plague should be introduced. The necessity of similar 

 legal provisions here was so obvious, that before this recent action of Great 

 Britain was known, the leading article of this report was prepared, that the 

 country might see the many ways by which infectious diseases are transmitted , 

 and seeing them, that they might be guarded against. The danger from 

 cholera, especially in the country, where medical attendance is not readily ob- 

 tained, led to a consideration of this disease with that of the cattle plague, and 

 in the March report the most available means of prevention and of the cure of 

 the diseases embraced in the heading of the first article will be given. 



The wool interest is one of the most important to this country. Whether we 

 consider the value of sheep to the farm itself in clearing it of all undergrowth, 

 and the worth of its manure, or its value as yielding the most wholesome of 

 meats, or its necessity in furnishing the most useful and elegant clothing mate- 

 rial, we must ever regard it as worthy of every encouragement. No greater 

 skill and perseverance have ever been exhibited in the improvement of any 

 farm stock than have been shown by the American wool-growers; but up to 

 the commencement of the rebellion this great interest always languished. The 

 cause of this was not so obvious. The history of the past protective tariffs 

 shows that under none of them was wool-growing profitably established. That 

 it encountered much opposition by the introduction of the cheaper foreign wools. 



