474 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



There were too many infected herds for us to undertake to keep them 

 all under supervision. In many infected stables inoculation was i)rac- 

 ticed, and it was admitted by the owners that new animals brought into 

 these herds would contract the malady unless they were protected by 

 inoculation 5 often they would contract it in spite of this operation. 

 Conversely,' it may be accepted as beyond controversy that animals 

 taken from these inoculated herds and allowed to mingle with healthy 

 ones would disseminate the contagion. These herds, which are infected 

 but which do not contain sick animals, therefore, do not appear on our 

 inspection list ; and it is doubtful if their shipment from State to State 

 could bo prevented under the present law, which provides a penalty for 

 shipping affected animals. Two breeding herds of Holstein-Friesian 

 cattle have been affected during the year, and other breeding herds 

 have been exposed. 



The number of infected herds in the Eastern States is so great that 

 no attempt has been made by the Bureau to notify their owners and 

 neighboring transportation companies of their existence. Indeed, it 

 would have been impossible to verify the diagnosis and issue the noti- 

 fications with the present limited force of the Bureau. If issued, such 

 notifications would be of no value unless the herds were kept under 

 supervision ; this again was impossible, because of our limited force. 

 As a matter of fact it has been difficult to prevent shipment of affected 

 animals in the isolated outbreaks of the West where the community 

 favored stamping out the disease and were anxious to assist and fur- 

 nish information. In the cities of the East the situation is very dif- 

 ferent ; the community is frequently hostile to interference j no reliable 

 information can be obtained from neighbors ; taere are numerous trans- 

 portation companies by which shipments may be made, and the owners 

 of cattle will not always allow iusjiection. It is useless to attempt to 

 accoDii^lish anytliing under such circumstances without power to make 

 inspections whether the owner. is willing or not — and he generally is not 

 willing if his cattle are affected — and authority to enforce such measures 

 as are necessary to stamp out the disease as soon as found. To under- 

 take a quarantine of infected herds without adopting measures to extir- 

 pate tiie contagion, would result in the accumulation of so many infected 

 herds in quarantine that no effectual supervision could be kept up with- 

 out a large number of inspectors, and an expense much greater than 

 would be necessary to stamp out the disease at once by the slaughter 

 of every infected animal. 



Co-oi)eration with State authorities to accomplish the prompt extir- 

 jtation of the disease has not been practicable, because very few States 

 liiive laws authorizing cooperation in any form for this purpose ; and 

 none have sufficient approi)riations to justify their officers in attempting 

 tlio slaughter of all infected herds. Our efforts in the East have, there- 

 fore, been limited to an inspection that would give an approximate idea 

 of the infected territory, tlie number of infected herds, and the number 

 of affected auin.als existing at any one time. 



in making the appropriation for the Bureau of Animal Industry for 

 tiie fiscal year ending June 30, 188G, a clause was added reading as fol- 

 lows: "And the Commissioner of Agriculture is hereby authorized to 

 use any part of this sum he may deem necessary or expedient, and in 

 such manner as he may think best, to prevent the spread of pleuro- 

 ])neumonia, not to conflict with existing law," There was a radical 

 difference of opinion as to whether this clause conferred any additional 

 authority for the expenditure of money over that contained in the law 



