No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 249 



It will be seen by the above table that the inspectors of 

 animals examined 237, G47 head of neat cattle, of which 155,- 

 876 were milch cows, as compared with 247,288 head of neat 

 cattle, of which 164,396 were milch cows, reported the pre- 

 vious year. The reports of the inspectors of animals, if cor- 

 rect, would indicate a decrease of nearly 10,000 head of neat 

 cattle in a year ; and, as there is a decrease of nearly 10,000 

 milch cows reported, it would seem that the decrease was 

 almost entirely confined to this class of animals. Much de- 

 pends upon the correctness of the work of the inspectors, and 

 some of them may not have made as careful and complete an 

 inspection as in the previous year, but there may have been 

 a diminution in the number of milch cows kept, and if a 

 fact, it is due to the increased cost of grain and labor and the 

 difficulty of obtaining competent willing farm hands, espe- 

 cially good milkers. If the milking machine prove to be a 

 success, so as to come into general use, it will help solve the 

 labor problem. 



If farmers raised more grain in New England and culti- 

 vated more land it would help to solve the feed problem ; but 

 this cannot be done when industrial conditions are such as to 

 render labor scarce and high, as shops and factories furnish 

 shorter hours and in many instances higher pay. 



Another factor that may have had something to do with 

 the decrease in the number of milch cows, provided there be 

 really a decrease, may be the requirements of boards of 

 health ; these, with the increased cost of grain and labor, 

 without a corresponding increase in the price the farmer re- 

 ceives for milk, cannot have been without some effect. 



The inspectors seem to have examined fewer sheep and 

 more swine than in the year previous. They also report in- 

 specting nearly 800 fewer herds of cattle than the year be- 

 fore. It would seem, therefore, that a part of the falling off 

 in the number of cattle reported is due to a less thorough in- 

 spection than in 1906. 



Tuberculosis. 

 The work connected with bovine tuberculosis can, as in pre- 

 ceding years, be classified under three divisions. 



First. — That part of the work connected with the exami- 



