BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTllY. 465 



and the above names and the plan to be hereafter outlined will, it is believed, com- 

 mend the enterprise. 



It may be proper to state that so long as there was a pressure for an extra session 

 of the legislature it was thought useless to act in the capacity now assumed, but now 

 that it is definitely kno\%Ti that no extra session will be called, all can unite upon one 

 plan upon which complete success, it is now believed, may be achieved. 



THE XEED OF ACTION. 



The preceding facts were arranged for publication, with other matter, when the ex- 

 citement regarding pleuro-pueumouia was at its highest in the State, but just at the 

 completion oFtbis article, the State veterinarian, Dr. Paul Paquiu, reported that the 

 disease was conliued to an area of 10 miles from Fulton, and that it was "virtually 

 extirpated." Since then, in a statement directed to me as dean of the agricultural 

 college. Dr. Michener, United States veterinarian stationed at Fulton, of high repu- 

 tatioQ as a veterinarian, repeats the assuring words, and says tliat not an acute case 

 exists, in his belief, in Callaway County, and none lias appeared beyond lii miles from 

 Fulton, yet ho advises raising .§10,000. 



WHY NOW RAISE MOXEY 7 



Because history in no department of human affairs has shown more clearly a neces- 

 sity than the one now before us. The most insidious of all diseases is witliiii our 

 borders, whose insidious character, the bulletin No. 15, receutl}' issued from the agri- 

 cultural college, and now before most of those who will receive this, shows: 



(1) It is months, often, that au animal is affected with the disease, and to untaught 

 eyes is not noticed, and yet the animal may bo imparting the disease to others. 



("3) The animal apparently gets well, yet its lungs contain the disease aud impart 

 it to others. The cow that went to Australia and gave tiie disease that swept away 

 §14,000,000 of stock was an aj)parently recovered case. Massachusetts believed she 

 was rid of it only to find it burst forth fifteen months after. Illinois is now startled 

 by its reappearance at Peoria, seven months after she believed she was clear of it. 

 Kentucky, during the last week, again reports it where it had sl^pt for months nu- 

 seen. 



This is its history. Callaway County and its veterinarians report no visible case, 

 having killed over 220 animals. But the veterinarians each send out a warning, and 

 the sum of §10,000 is named as necessary for any lurking cases, for it is not the sick 

 that are alone to be killed, but every infected herd must go. Illinois and Kentucky 

 have just learned that they sbould have killed the herd aud not merely the sick ones, 

 leaving the balance as hidden breeding grounds and centers of propagation mouths 

 after. 



Then let the mistakes and experience of others be our warning. Lot tis, like men, 

 be guided by the history of the past, and not by animal carcasses in the future, and 

 perhaps too late. Indeed, now is the ci'itical time for completing the Avork, and yet 

 the tendency is to go to sleep on the question. There are several herds in which the 

 disease may appear, near to Fulton, whose value may reach $10,000, and whose pur- 

 chase Callaway County farmers say they cannot and ought not to make. They ought 

 not to be asked to. Why? Because the disease involves tlie interests of the whole 

 State. Feeding the fears of other States, whoso interests this dangerous disease 

 threatens, our State is girdled on tlrree sides with a quarantine that has brought a 

 commercial night upon our stock commerce and threatens a jiaralysis of all business 

 life in Missouri. 



Representing 870,000,000 to $80,000,000, our cattle industry forms one of the largest 

 and most profitable of the resources of the State. The mercantile business of every 

 city and village draws life from it; the banks of every community are involved in its 

 prospcrity,-and the labor of every town and the sustenance of most farmers are di- 

 rectly involved in its welfare. With one of the best soils, climate, and location for 

 breeders of fine stock, Missouri has become among the first of States in reputation for 

 its fine herds and is now or was a great purchasing ground for breeders for the vast 

 herds of the plains. That business is almost completely strangled by the quarantine 

 that has shut down around us. Herds that two months ago were worth §20,000 are 

 not to-day salable forsl0,000, yet they are only tainted by association and not by dis- 

 ease. The tenacity with which this disease clings to the skirts of our sister States 

 tells us with no uncertain sound that unless we act upon the theory that this disease 

 is but slumbering we shall leave it as a patrimony to our sons and their sons to the 

 third and fourth ge^ieration, and at last stab fatally the nation's export trade in live 

 animals, sacrificing thereby the most hopeful feature of our agriculture and the corner- 

 stone of the highest type of farming. 



The disease may lurk for millions, but cash down will take thousands; it demands 

 the future, but can be now put off with months ; it asks every county, but may bo jiut 

 off with one. 



30 AG— '86 



