186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



understood rightly, out of the twenty-five examined the 

 air in three was found to be pure and good ; and I would 

 like to know the system of ventilation, and also what was 

 the condition of the cattle as to disease in these stables. 

 I believe that a great deal of this disease in cattle has 

 been in consequence of impure air and poor ventilation in 

 stables. 



Dr. Osgood. None of the stables that I speak of had 

 had the whole herd examined. The examiner went about 

 and took barns indiscriminately, not trying to pick out the 

 best or the poorest, but taking those barns that were con- 

 venient to the railroad station, where he could reach them 

 early in the morning. There may have been a quarantined 

 animal removed from some of them, but none of the herds 

 had had a systematic examination. Two of the barns were 

 without cellars, one story, and built on the plan that barns 

 are built to-day, with ventilation in the roof. 



Mr. Pratt. What was the number of animals ? 



Dr. Osgood. Forty, sixteen, forty, twenty and fifteen. 



Mr. Pratt. How much pure air should a medium-sized 

 creature have ? 



Dr. Osgood. One thousand cubic feet, with a change of 

 air two or three times a day. The gentleman states that 

 he believes the majority of the cases of tuberculosis are 

 due to impure air. Now, it is utterly impossible to have 

 tuberculosis except you receive the germ from some other 

 tuberculous animal or tuberculous being of some kind. To 

 illustrate the case, I will give you two barns in Falmouth, 

 built at the same time, the same system, built some nine 

 years ago. They each had thoroughbred Guernsey cattle. 

 In one case the cattle had all been bred on the farm, in the 

 other they had imported many animals. If they went to a 

 fair and saw a remarkably fine animal, they bought it and 

 brought it home. I examined these two herds a year ago 

 or more. In one herd (thirty-four animals) there was not 

 a case of tuberculosis, in the other herd every animal was 

 diseased. In one case they had bred the animals on the 

 farm for nine years without importing an animal, in the 

 other they kept introducing fancy animals. Bear in mind, 

 — these were both thoroughbred Guernsey herds. The 



