ate 25 ee Aye Por rE 4 ltt mo ha My ae rages". it on y ¥ i 
ine + raf a . : ¢ 4 \ Z 
a : "REPORT oF THE comMISssIoNER OF AGRICULTURE. 15 
a hak of cattle purchased for slaughter by the Department, because 
exposed or supposed to have been exposed to the contagion, was 988, 
of which Ae were affected with a ie igri The nutber of 
or biitéeted and $13,560.03 for “sah animals, There will bb some 
ht additions to these figures, as the accounts are not all adjusted 
nd there is still some work to do. 
ee Very satisfactory progress has been made in the other infected 
Ss ates. In New York there have been purchased for slaughter 646 
; exposed cattle and 153 affected ones; in New Jersey, 67 exposed and 
BY affected; in Maryland, 1,287 exposed and 1,285 affected. The 
plague has been completely eradicated from Washington and Dela- 
r _ ware Counties in the State of New York, and several counties in New 
oF) ersey and Maryland have been meaty or quite freed from it. A 
_ thorough inspection of the District of Columbia, and of the counties 
in Vir ginia which were infected at the time my previous report was 
written, shows that the disease no longer exists in these sections. 
There has not been atime in years when this malady has been con- 
fined to such restricted areas as at present, and consequently the-con- 
_ ditions are very favorable for its complete eradication. If the State 
authorities continue their co-operation as at present, which there is 
every reason to expect, and if an appropriation is made by Congress 
equal to that of the present fiscal year, and with authority for its 
similar use, it is believed that this dangerous plague can be sas mi- 
nated by the end of the next fiscal year. 
While the work for the suppression of pleuro-pneumonia has been 
by far the most extensive of any done by the Bureau, investigations 
of other contagious diseases have been made which have yielded very 
 importantresults. Such investigations have for their object the dis- 
covery of the essential nature of these diseases and the methods by 
& which they can be most effectually prevented. The advances of 
knowledge in this direction are not only, of value to the farmer in 
assisting him to save his property, but they are of great advantage 
to the consumer by their tendency to improve the quality of the meat 
supply. To the country at large such questions are worthy of atten- 
j tion, since animal food can not be produced in abundance and cheaply 
in countries where animal plagues are allowed to ravage the flocks 
2 and herds without intelligent efforts for their control. Our country 
has been especially fortunate in the past in having but a limited 
number of such diseases to contend with, but with the increased im- 
portations from the Old World, and the shortening of the time re- 
quired to make the voyage, other forms of contagion are being intro- 
duced, and unless proper regulations are made and enforced we will 
soon have to contend with all the maladies which have hindered the 
production of live stock in Europe and Asia, There must continue 
a 
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