24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



on the appearance of the disease, and on the theory, or rather 

 on the knowledge, of its contagious character. This is the 

 reason most commonly urged for tlie universal custom of keep- 

 ing cattle so fat there. They are generally ready for the butcher 

 on a very short preparation, and are often hurried off without 

 any. I visited dairies, in September last, in the neighborhood 

 of London, where every animal, although in full flow of milk, 

 was in fair beef condition. They dare not buy poor cattle. 

 Tlie loss would be sure to fall heavily upon them. 



Is it wise for us, because we do not know the precise period 

 of incubation and all the other laws of this dangerous disease, 

 to delay action till it is too late to act at all ? 



Is it wise for us to ignore the labors and patient researches 

 of men quite as scientific, to say the least, as any among us, 

 with facilities infinitely greater than any that we can command, 

 and to shut our eyes to the light of their investigations ? 



Is it wise, during a raging conflagration, to hesitate to pull 

 'down a building, even at the loss of some property, if, by so 

 doing, we can prevent the destruction of a vastly greater amount 

 of property ? 



In what I have said I have no personal interest, either direct 

 or indirect, to subserve, and in urging the facts in regard to 

 this disease upon the public attention during the last four or 

 five years, I have only attempted to do what I conceived to be 

 a public duty. So far from having anything to regret, to 

 retract, or alter, from what I stated at first, subsequent events 

 and a more extended observation have corroborated those state- 

 ments in the strongest manner. If the community still sleep 

 over this danger, I shall have the melancholy satisfaction of 

 finding, at last, a unanimous public sentiment on this subject. 

 But it will be too late. The result is inevitable. Neglect will 

 and can only lead to unmitigated evil. 



If the people are willing to drink the milk of cows, rotten 

 with disease, and to give it to their children, as they have done 

 in Boston, if they are ready to accept the alternative of having 

 the beef of diseased animals brouglit upon their tables, as has 

 been the case, I have no more to say. But 'if they desire to 

 avoid this alternative, tliey will have to act promptly and stren- 

 uously for the eradication and stop of pleuro-pneumonia. 



