REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 21 



herds can be quarantined and slaughtered at relatively small expense 

 for salaries, but when in small lots and scattered over a large terri- 

 tory, or when a constant guard must be maintained, this expense is 

 greatly increased. 



Again, after the slaughter of exposed cattle was suspended, there 

 was a period of watching and investigation to make SVXG that 

 every vestige of the disease had been destroyed. The period during 

 which the active slaughter of cattle was in progress, and the com- 

 pensation paid by the Department, was but little over six months, 

 while the total period during which it had been necessary to keep a 

 force in the field was fifteen months. Finally, the expenses for dis- 

 infection were very heavy, and this is the only outbreak in which 

 any systematic and thorough disinfection had been practiced in 

 the United States by the authorities up to the time the disease was 

 eradicated. If these facts are taken into consideration, they will ex- 

 plain the preponderance of salaries and other expenses over the amount 

 paid for slaughtered cattle. 



There were slaughtered after January 1, 1888, 4 affected cattle, 

 at a cost of $81.27, an average of $20.32 per head. There were also 

 slaughtered 129 exposed animals, at a cost of $2,408.43, an average of 

 $18. 67 per head. The total expenses in Illinois after January 1, 1888, 

 were $5,946.69, of which $2,489.70 was paid for diseased and exposed 

 cattle. 



The prompt eradication of pleuro-pneumonia from Chicago and 

 vicinity is worthy of more than a simple narration of the fact. It 

 may well be considered one of the most important results ever ac- 

 complished by the Department of Agriculture. History gives few if 

 any cases where the dairies of a city of the size of Chicago have once 

 been infected with pleuro-pneumonia and where the disease has been 

 eradicated without years of constant work and the expenditure of 

 vast sums of money. Paris was infected more than one hundred 

 years ago, and, in spite of the large number of veterinarians in that 

 district, and of the stringent laws and regulations promulgated for 

 its suppression, the disease still exists, and its ravages continue from 

 year to year apparently undiminjshed. 



A continued existence of the disease at Chicago would certainly 

 have led to the infection of the whole country within a few years, 

 and the ruin of a profitable cattle industry in the United States. 

 Already the local restrictions placed by the authorities of many 

 States upon the introduction of cattle from Cook County, and in many 

 cases from the whole State of Illinois, had become extremely em- 

 barrassing to shippers and burdensome to the whole stock interest of 

 the West. How;. these restrictions would have been increased by the 

 spread of the plague to other States, and how we should have suf- 

 fered from a leading article of food, impaired in quality and dimin- 

 ished in quantity, can be easily imagined. By a fortunate combina- 

 tion of circumstances it was possible to check the extension of the 

 plague at once, and to extirpate it within a few months, but the risk 

 of failure and the danger to the country have never been appreciated 

 except by a few who were acquainted with all the facts. 



With the publication of the notice giving information of the eradi- 

 cation of the disease and removing the quarantine restrictions which 

 had been imposed by this Department, confidence was restored to 

 the stock-owners of the country, the irksome local restrictions were 

 one by one removed, and soon the freedom of cattle commerce was 

 again established. 



