222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



produce a large and loug-contiuued flow of milk. This system is 

 so largely followed by dairymen that the great wonder is tliat the 

 disorder does not prevail to a greater extent among this class of 

 animals than it does, in certain localities. 



Another cause that will, after a while, create a decided con- 

 dition of receptivity, is due to a badly managed in-and-in breed- 

 ing, as a result of which some one noted and valuable trait, as an 

 immense amount of beef or a tremendous flow of milk, is repro- 

 duced in the offspring, at the expense of the soundness of other 

 organs of the bod}^ with a sureness that is only equalled by the 

 certainty with which disease shows itself in individual after indi- 

 vidual of the race. 



Another cause, and the greatest one of all, perhaps, is the 

 breeding from animals which are themselves the victims of tuber- 

 culosis. This, in itself, is not apt to produce the disorder ; but it 

 does produce an animal that has an extremely strong " predispo- 

 sition " to enter upon the state of receptivity ; that is, to get into 

 the peculiar condition which makes his body an exceedingly well- 

 prepared and fertile soil for the implantotion and growth of the 

 seed (contagion) of tuberculosis. The fact that such animals are 

 more open than are any others to an attack of this contagion is a 

 further indication that there is something beyond a mere poor or 

 " run out " condition necessary in its production ; and that this 

 " something" is reproduced in the breeding with as much certainty 

 as are other more easily recognized and more valuable family 

 peculiarities. 



The contagion in this country, and in some others from which 

 we import cattle is widespread and practically omnipresent. In 

 order, therefore, that this danger to mankind may be reduced as 

 much as possible, the supply that they are now receiving, through 

 meat and milk, must be cut off by getting rid of our tuberculous 

 cattle ; and finally, by trying to produce a race of animals that 

 will be proof against the contagion in as great a degree as certain 

 families are now open to its ravages. 



Symptoms. 

 There is, in the first place, a certain but not always well-defined 

 loss of activity ; there will be periods in which the animal will 

 seem dull and dejected ; and many of these cows cannot be made 

 to breed easily, while it is not at all uncommon for many of them 

 to be almost continually in heat. The appetite is good, and the 

 cow will fatten fairly or give a good yield of milk. With these 

 cases there is very apt to be an occasional cough, dry, deep and 

 feeble, that is especially shown, when there is, from any cause, 



