448 KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGKICULTUEE. 



emergency. Tho conditions of success are -well enougli nnderstood, and -wliile special 

 adaptations vrould be demanded in many localities, yet tlie work should be carried out 

 actively wilhout the necessity of calling together a lai'go and unwieldy committee 

 before anything can bo done. 



Another point of vital importance is that a sufficient sum of money should bo ap- 

 propriated for this exclusive purpose, to obviate the necessity of stopping the work 

 or giving it a material check before success shall have been accomplished. Any 

 material arrest or any entire cessation of the work -and a renewed spread of tho dis- 

 ease will bring the whole question of veterinary sanitary work into disrepute, and 

 may be the means of indefinitely and fatally postponing furtlier action. Wliile a 

 large sum should be appropriated, its expenditure may be sufficiently guarded, but 

 above all it should not be a common fund to be devoted to this and other objects. 

 Aside from tho moral question, this is of far more immediate importance tlian even 

 yellow fever, tho germs of which are destroyed by frost, and the neglect of which for 

 one year places tho sanitarian in no greater difficulty for the nest. With a disease 

 liive tlie lung plague, which is favorably affected by no change of climate nor season, 

 and the germs of which survive all extremes of heat and cold, the loss of a year, a 

 month, or even a day, may make the difference between an easy success and disas- 

 trous and irremediable failure — a live-stock interest which can supply tho world with 

 sound beef, and a general infection of tho continent, and continuous" embargo on tho 

 foreign trade. 



EEPRESSIVE JIEASUEES ADOPTED IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



The department is iudebtcd to Mr. Thomas J. Edge, secretary of tlie 

 Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, for advance sheets of his 

 forthcoming report on the subject of contagious lung plague of cattle. 

 After citing the history of the disease in Europe and in this country, 

 and alliidiDg to its long presence in Pennsylvania in a malignant and 

 destructive form, Secretary Edge states that finally, but not until after 

 the farmers of the State had sustained heaivy losses, a meeting of tho 

 dairymen of Delaware, Montgomery, and adjoining counties was called. 

 This meeting was held in Philadelphia in March last, and before its ad- 

 journment a committee was appointed to wait uijon the secretary of tho 

 iDoard of agriculture and urge the importance of legislative action. 

 The veterinary surgeon of the board, in company with this committee, 

 visited herds supposed to be infected. Surgeons who had had years of 

 experience with the disease in Europe and elsewhere were also called in ; 

 post-mortem examinations were made, and the existence of the malady 

 established beyond a doubt. The legislature being in session, the secre- 

 tary of tlie board laid all the evidence before the joint committee of 

 agriculture, and, after discussion and mature cojisideration, it was de- 

 cided that the State should adopt a line of precautionary and prevent- 

 ive action, not only for the benefit of its own citizens, but also out of 

 respect to the action of adjoining States. A subcommittee was, therelbre, 

 appointed to consult with the governor, and, if deemed expedient, they 

 were instructed to draft an act i^roviding for the suppression of the 

 disease. After consultation, the following resolution was oifered and 

 adopted ^y both branches of the legislature : 



Whereas, The States of New York and New Jersey, by recently enacted laws to pre- 

 vent tho dissemination among live stock of the disease known as pleuro-pneumouia, 

 now invito this State, by a concert of action, to assist them to eradicate this contagion : 

 Therefore, 



Resolved hy the Senate (if the Souse of Hepresentatkes concur), That tho governor 

 be, and ho is hereby^ authorized to take such iireliminary action as may be necessary 

 to prevent iti further spread. 



This resolution was approved by the governor March 27, 1879. At 

 the same time, an act previously adopted by the committee was intro- 

 duced, which, after amendment, passed both branches of the legislature, 



