REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 15 



Every effort possible under existing laws has been made to locate 

 tlie diseased animals and isolate all that liave been exposed. With 

 such a plague as this existing in the greatest live-stock center of the 

 country, threatening to impair both the quantity and quality of our 

 food supply, and increasing the insecurity of our export trade in livo 

 cattle and in cattle products, it would have been most fortunate if 

 every animal exposed to the disease and liable to contract it could 

 have been summarily slaughtered and the contagion thus eradicated. 

 The experience of all countries has been that the malady may be 

 thoroughly and completely stamped out in this way, and that there 

 is no other means by which the bovine species can be protected from 

 its ravages. This disease is one of the most destructive which affects 

 domesticated animals; it does not run a definite course and disappear, 

 but remains in the same herd year after year, and as it frequently as- 

 sumes a chronic form, there is a more than ordinary temptation to 

 dispose of the milk and flesh of diseased animals for human food. 



With a disease of this character at Chicago it has been truly said 

 that the cattle industry of this country has reached a crisis. There 

 can be no doubt that it will be soon and widely disseminated unless 

 prompt and effectual action can be instituted for its speedy suppres- 

 sion. Even now it may have been scattered to some extent in the 

 West, and the investigations of the nest year will probably bring 

 other outbreaks to light. The matter is a most important one, over- 

 shadoAving in urgency all others affecting our agricultural popula- 

 tion, and of vital interest also to every consumer of beef, of milk, of 

 butter, and of cheese. To prevent the spread of this scourge, which 

 has already greatly affected our foreign and inter-State commerce, 

 additional legislation by Congress is now essential. 



Under the authority conferred by the acts approved Maj^ 29, 1884, 

 and June 30, 188G, the Department has co-operated with such States 

 as accepted its rules and regulations for controlling and extirpating 

 this disease. Much valuable work has already been done in Mary- 

 land, and the danger of the dissemination of the contagion from that 

 State has been greatly lessened. No work has been done in the State 

 of New York, because, it was evident that the appropriation was not 

 sufficient to secure any favorable results there on account of the ex- 

 tent of the infection. The disease also exists in New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Virginia, but the State authorities have not yet accepted 

 the rules and regulations of the Department for co-operation. 



I greatly regret the necessity of announcing the existence of this 

 dangerous disease over such a wide area, but the serious results to be 

 apprehended from it make it imperative that the truth should be 

 known, in order that such legislative action may be taken as is indi- 

 cated by the emergency. 



Of next importance among the contagious diseases of animals is the 

 plague of swine, generally known as hog cholera. The losses from 



