CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 191 



Opinion, that the profit derived from tlie " fiuishing up" process would 

 more than comj)ensate for the resulting competition. 



Feeling certain that this is the view generally held by intelligent and 

 progressive British farmers, and also strong in the belief that we shall 

 at no very distant day be in such a condition as to enable us to give our 

 British cousins assurances concerning the sanitary condition of our 

 cattle that will be satisfactory, I conlideutly look to the entire removal 

 of the present restrictions as a thing reasonably certain to occur in the 

 near future. Of course this belief and hope is based upon the confi- 

 dence I feel in the course which our General Government, aided by that 

 of the infected States, will take in respect to the stamping out of con- 

 tagious diseases and in otherwise improving the sanitary- condition of 

 our cattle, and also in the surveillance which, in my opinion, will at no 

 distant day be exercised over our exports. 



The importation of cattle from foreign countries was a fruitful theme 

 for discussion in Great Britain during the time I was in that country. 

 The unusual extent to which foot-and-mouth disease has prevailed 

 there during the past year and the losses resulting therefrom to British 

 farmers have made them extremely restive, and while the Government 

 has been active in its efforts to stamp out the disease, it has been con- 

 stantly imi^ortuned to adopt still more stringent regulations to prevent 

 the introduction of contagious diseases from abroad. All Americans 

 interested in the subject are aware that for several years past a regula- 

 tion has been enforced which requires that all cattle brought to Great 

 Britain from the Cnited States must be slaughtered at the docks where 

 landed within ten days after their arrival, no matter what may be their 

 condition or the state of the market. This edict of compulsory slaughter 

 is based upon the assumption that to admit the free transit of cattle 

 from the United States to the farms and pastiTres of Great Britain 

 w^ould exjiose the cattle of British farmers to increased dangers of 

 infection from pleuropneumonia or lung plague, the presence of which 

 disease along a jiortion of our Atlantic seaboard is admitted. 



In the mean time Canadian cattle have been freely admitted without 

 compulsory slaughter or detention, no contagious diseases having been 

 found among the cattle of that country, and the Canadian Government 

 maintaining a rigid quarantine against the cattle of all foreign coun- 

 tries, the United States included, and also making a caieful inspection 

 of all exported cattle and exercising a rigid supervision over the ships 

 in wliicli they are carried. In consequence of these regulations a Ca- 

 nadian bullock will bring .$ 15 to $25 more at the Liverpool or London land- 

 ings than could be obtained for the same bullock if exported from the 

 United States. To some European countries where the sanitary condi- 

 tion of the cattle is not so satisfactory as in the United States even the 

 grace of compulsory slaughter is not accorded, but the landing of live 

 cattle therefrom is absolutely prohibited. 



In January last a shipment of cattle was received at Liverpool from 



