THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 25 



cattle, and the sale of high-priced Short-horns or Jerseys in an in- 

 fected condition would have entailed careful inquiries and possibly 

 ruinous lawsuits. It will be seen, therefore, that even in the event of 

 infection having been carried westward in high-bred stock, there would 

 have been a much stronger probability of its dying out in the secluded 

 herd which was first infected than there was in the cattle around our 

 Kastern cities. Had the infection at any time been conveyed into the 

 herds of poor milkmen who pastured their cows on the commons around 

 Chicago, Indianapolis, or other western cities, it would have been as 

 certainly perpetuated as it has been in the East. 



Obxtaclea to the progress of lung plague northward. Along the line of 

 the New York Central Kailroad the obstacles placed in the way of the 

 plague were of a somewhat different kind. North of Yonkers, where 

 the open commons virtually end, the land is well fenced, so that even 

 it infection were introduced it had every opportunity to die out in the 

 first herd infected, and but few chances for its preservation. Here, too, 

 in case of a herd becoming infected and its being found desirable to clear 

 it out, the most available means would be through the New York stock- 

 yards. Thus every tendency of the disease was to gravitate toward 

 the points where the plague already prevailed, and the danger of its 

 slow and gradual extension along this line was reduced to the mini- 

 mum. 



Protection along the line of the Harlem Kailroad has been secured by 

 the comparative absence of large cities and of open and common past- 

 ure grounds. Up to Mount Vernon open commons are found, and as far 

 as this the lung plague has been a frequent visitor, if not indeed a per- 

 manent resident, but north of this the land is well inclosed, and along 

 the whole road there is only one village of more than 1,000 inhabitants. 

 White Plains alone has 4,000. In cases, therefore, of the introduction 

 of the lung plague into Westchester and Putnam Counties, it was 

 usually easily traceable to cattle from New York City or farther south, 

 and the farms being fenced it could be isolated and extirpated without 

 difficulty. 



Along the New York and New Haven Kailroad the land is still well 

 fenced, but the villages and cities are numerous, and as might be ex- 

 pected the lung plague has frequently extended in this direction, but has 

 been as often stamped out by the watchful care of Connecticut. A sec- 

 ond reason for the infection of Connecticut is to be found in the fact that 

 havingtheNew York market bet ween herself and the sources of the cattle 

 traffic, she naturally drew upon that market for store as well as fat cat- 

 tle. But for the vigilance of the Connecticut cattle commissioners, the 

 boasted immunity of Massachusetts could not have been maintained for 

 these sixteen years, and the whole of New England owes a deep debt of 

 gratitude to that body for their faithful guardiancy of their cattle in- 

 dustry. 



CONTINUITY OF THE IMPORTED DISEASE AND THAT OF TO-DAY IN 



NEW YORK. 



A few words may be requisite to establish the fact that the Inng 

 plague of to-day in New York is the direct descendant of the case im- 

 ported in 1848. 



1st. Many are still living who can remember when the dairy herds 

 of New York City and Brooklyn were free from all contagious lung 

 disease, and who can testify that since the unfortunate arrival of Peter 

 Dunn's English cow the malady has constantly prevailed. 



