No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 519 



was done, the owner should have the option of either sepa- 

 rating the reacting from the non-reacting, and following out 

 the principles laid down by Bang under direction of the 

 Board, or having the reacting animals killed and appraised, 

 the owner to receive the beef value of the carcass. 



Such a method of compensation, when the test is made on 

 the request and in the interest of the owner, would result in 

 no voluntary testing being done unless the owner was in 

 earnest in his desire to have the disease eradicated from his 

 herd. If he had to bear a proportional part of the cost, 

 he would naturally be more careful. Unless an owner is 

 heart and soul in the work, the law is powerless to relieve 

 him. Stock owners should realize that to keep a herd that 

 has once been seriously affected free from disease depends 

 more upon the continual watchfulness and care of the owner 

 than upon any laws the State may enact. 



Another practical point that might well be referred to 

 here is that of slaughter-house inspection and the super- 

 vision of local slaughter houses. It appears to us as though 

 the supervision of this work more properly belonged to the 

 local boards of health. 



The method of licensing a number of small scattered 

 slaughter houses is another point that should be remedied. 

 The system is not one that lends itself readily to either 

 convenience or economy in inspection ; and, in fact, from 

 every point of view it would seem to be better to do away 

 with the small private slaughter houses, and give cities and 

 towns power to establish public abattoirs, w T here those 

 eng-affed in this business could rent stalls at a fair rate, and 

 where the work of supervising them could be done more 

 satisfactorily and more economically than at the present 

 time. 



Texas Fever. 



There has been no Texas fever in this Commonwealth dur- 

 ing the past summer, but a few remarks upon the steps taken 

 to prevent an outbreak similar to the one reported in 1897, 

 and the benefit to cattle owners resulting from the investiga- 

 tion made by Dr. Cooper Curtice, acting under authority of 



