286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



it is believed that some may have yielded to pecuniary 

 temptation, and done dishonest work for unscrupulous 

 dealers . 



The tuberculin test is at present believed in by many 

 persons, and a large number of cattle owners do not care to 

 buy an animal that will not pass it ; therefore a breeder who 

 sells an animal with a fraudulent certificate of test as one 

 that has passed it, or who sells as sound with a fraudulent 

 certificate of test an animal that would not pass it, is 

 obtaining money under false pretences, and is no better 

 than a swindler. 



If a breeder thinks tuberculin is a humbug, or honestly 

 thinks it injures an animal, he should frankly state it, and 

 refuse to have an animal in his herd tested for a prospective 

 buyer, but tell the would-be purchaser to buy it as it stands, 

 and do what he pleases with it after he has paid for it ; but 

 to sell an animal as tested to a purchaser who sincerely 

 believes in the test, giving a fraudulent certificate of test 

 ■with it, even if he knows he has not a case of tuberculosis 

 in his herd, is an unscrupulous piece of rascality on the 

 part of both the seller and the so-called veterinarian furnish- 

 ing the proof of the alleged test. 



At a meeting of the Interstate Association of Live Stock 

 Sanitary Boards, at St. Louis, Mo., last August, the secre- 

 tary read a pai)er by the Chief of the Cattle Bureau of the 

 Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture upon the ' ' Pre- 

 vention, suppression and control of certain communicable 

 diseases of domestic animals," in which he advocated that 

 the United States Bureau of Animal Industry test with 

 tuberculin all cattle over six months old intended for any 

 other purpose than immediate slaughter, which are to be 

 exported from one State to another, allowing only those 

 that pass the test to proceed to their destination. If this 

 could be brought about, it would save money to the States 

 which now require cattle to pass a tuberculin test before 

 being allowed to go free, — money which could well be 

 expended for other purposes ; and would also insure the 

 work being honestly and correctly performed in all instances. 



The United States governnient now holds at (juarantine 



