THE LUNG PLAGUE. 15 



I can corroborate the statements made as to the sale of cattle that are infected. Not 

 only has this occurred often where the disease has been most rife for years past, as on 

 Long Island, but recently, in making inquiries in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, I 

 learned of three cows which had been sold &quot; healthy&quot; (?) out of an infected herd. Such a 

 practice explains the progress of the disease even further south than Maryland. 



I have been informed that the malady has traveled as far west as Kentucky and 

 Ohio, but of this I have not been able, in the brief time since I commenced the inquiry, 

 to obtain satisfactory evidence. I have taken some pains to ascertain if the disease had 

 reappeared in Massachusetts, and personal inquiries in various parts of the State show 

 that it is quite free from the disease, thanks to the energy of its people and the enlightened 

 action of its legislature. 



The conclusions that are warranted by the facts I have gleaned are as follows : 



First. That the lung plague in cattle exists on Long Island, where it has prevailed 

 for many years ; that it is not uncommon in New Jersey ; has at various times appeared 

 in New York State ; continues to be very prevalent in several counties of Pennsylvania, 

 especially in Delaware and Bucks ; has injured the farmers of Maryland, the dairymen 

 around Washington, D. C., and has penetrated into Virginia. 



Second. That the disease travels wherever sick cattle are introduced, and that the 

 great cattle-rearing States of the West, which may not at present be entirely free from the 



disease, have been protected by the fact that they sell rather than buy and import horned 

 stock. 



Third. There are no proper restrictions on the sale of infected stock, and in another 

 year or two, unless some definite and immediate action should be taken, the disease is 

 likely to find its way into so many parts of the country that its eradication will be almost 

 impossible. 



Of all the cattle diseases pleuropneuinonia is in the long run the most destructive, 

 because the most insidious and the least likely to rouse a people to united action for its 

 effectual suppression. To ignore its presence is, however, to insure that the cattle mortal 

 ity of America, like that of England, will be at least doubled within a few years. Rational 

 means, energetic action, and earnest co-operation between the different States and the cen 

 tral government, may, with a moderate expenditure now, save many millions annually in 

 the not distant future. 



For three years past the city of Washington, and, indeed, the whole District of Colum 

 bia, with adjoining parts of Maryland and Virginia, have been seriously affected with the 

 lung plague. It is gleaned from the contractors who clean the city of the carcasses of dead 

 animals, that it is not uncommon to have several dead cows in a day from the Washing 

 ton dairies ; that to have a dozen a week has not been unusual, during certain seasons, and 

 that the supply is constant. Unfortunately, as in other cities of America and Europe, 

 the prevalence of pleuropneumonia results in a wholesale traffic in such animals. Sick 

 cows are sold to butchers, and if in good condition command thirty to sixty dollars ; others 

 that are too lean are taken in the early stage, mixed with other stock, and sent by railroad 

 to Baltimore, to be sold as stock cows to farmers. In fact, the active and unremittent 

 traffic in sick cattle insures that Washington, the neighborhood of Alexandria, in Virginia, 

 and Baltimore, will continue to be great breeding centers of pleuropneumonia. Some idea 

 of the heavy losses in the Washington district may be gleaned from a table annexed, 

 prepared by a Washington dairyman. (See Appendix at close of this report.) 



