THE LUNG PLACflJE OF CATTLE. 33 



stock. But the very care which thus seems to protect them, servos to 

 secure them against suspicion, and attords them a better opportunity 

 for conveying infection than is the case with common cattle. It will be 

 readily recalled that nearly all the great extensions of lung plague in 

 modern times have been through thoroughbred- stock. \Veneed only 

 name that of Ireland, Norway. Sweden, Denmark, Holsteiu, Oldenburg, 

 \Yiirtemburg, Africa. Australia, and Massachusetts. 



It is these thoroughbred cattle which are sought after by the cattle 

 kin-is an<l shipped west and south to improve their vast herds in Texas, 

 Kansas, &(., where there art 1 no fences to limit the freedom ot infected 

 stock. That the cattle shipped in this way are not always selected 

 with the care necessary to avoid contagion may be seen from the in- 

 stances above add need. Indeed, it is no uncommon thing for the western 

 or southern stock raiser to send to an agent in the east to purchase and 

 send on thoroughbred bulls for the improvement of his herd. He 

 thereby places himself entirely in the hands of a third party who, living 

 in the 'midst of infected cattle, is not likely to entertain such dread of 

 infect ion, and who in any case is very unlikely to realize the terrible con- 

 sequences of the shipment of disease to our open cattle ranges. 



As showing the working of this carelessness, may be noted an in- 

 stance to which Short-horn and Jersey calves, in waiting for vessels to 

 convey them from New York to Texas and South Carolina, respectively, 

 were temporal ily placed in a stable along with an English bull then in 

 quarantine. On the discovery having been made their going was delayed 

 until they too had undergone quarantine. Quite recently, too, a promi- 

 nent Illinois breeder purchased and shipped west a large herd of Here- 

 fords from the immediate vicinity of Baltimore, now one of the most in- 

 fected districts in the United States, and the one to which most recent 

 cases of new extensions of the disease have been traced. 



As giving some idea of the great increase of thoroughbreds in recent 

 years, it may be stated that Short-horns, of which there were less than 

 50,000 in the country ten years ago, can scarcely be set down as less 

 than 500,000 to-day. Add to this enormous increase the fact that Short- 

 horns have recently fallen to prices at which every good farmer can se- 

 cure a first-class bull to cross 011 his native cattle, and we have some 

 conception of the enormous increase of sales of this class of stock. So 

 tar as this active movement of stock enters the eastern infected areas, 

 it multiplies enormously the dangers of the propagation of lung plague 

 to other parts of the nation. 



Some of the other breeds are moved in greater numbers from infected 

 regions to-day than are Short-horns, and the dangers are correspond- 

 ingly great. 



IMPROVEMENT OF WESTERN HERDS A CAUSE OF DANGER. 



Ten years ago it was an easy matter to tell a bullock from Texas or 

 (\eii from the plains. At that time the old Spanish blood was still pure 

 or nearly so, and it was a standing joke to pack a bullock in his own 

 horns. But to-day our western cattle have no longer the Spanish form, 

 and many Texans even can scarcely be distinguished from Short-horns. 

 The breeders have found out the advantages of early maturity and of 

 prices at least double those which their old stock would have brought, 

 and in spite of Texas fever they are crowding the markets of the north 

 for bull calves of the beef -making breeds. Every such shipment from 

 the east of the Alleghanies risks the introduction of lung plague into 

 Texas, and its permanent establishment in the State. So of every ship- 

 S. Ex. 106 3 



