112 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



Ranges. — Although our results for the past year have been in 

 general very satisfactory, and though they have shown a distinct 

 improvement in nearly all classes of diseases over the results ob- 

 tained in 1902, still we feel that there is much to be desired, and 

 I should like to impress upon the Board that we are by no means 

 satisfied with the results and particularly with the large amount 

 of sickness which occurs among our valuable ruminants, though 

 the death rate in these. animals has been materially reduced. 



There is no doubt but that the faults that cause this condition 

 are dietetic and follow almost immediately the release of the ani- 

 mals into the grass ranges. This subject has already been the 

 object of a special report in which I emphasized again, as I 

 have in all of the reports which I have had the honor to render to 

 your Board, the impossibility of making these ranges safe, unless 

 all the natural vegetation be removed and in most cases at least 

 the floor of the enclosures be replaced with an artificial one. I am 

 fully convinced that these rules apply to all the ranges in a greater 

 or less degree. 



Sheep Ranges. — My ideas are embodied in a special report ren- 

 dered November 29, 1903. 



Ponds. — In all cases where mammals are quartered in enclo- 

 sures which contain bodies of water, these should be so arranged 

 that they can be drained and thoroughly cleaned from time to 

 time, otherwise once infected they may act for a long time as a 

 source of infection for all animals confined in that pound. We 

 have good reason for believing that the pond in the elk range has 

 acted in this way. Of course I realize that such radical alterations 

 are not practicable in all instances, but in so far as possible they 

 should be observed, and, in my opinion, it is only a question of 

 time when we shall find it necessary to make it a general rule. 



THE OLD ELK HERD. 



There is no room for reasonable doubt but that all the members 

 of the old elk herd are infected with bronchial filaria and the 

 Mischerschen schleache. Both these parasites are transferable to 

 other and healthy animals, so that throwing out entirely the 

 question of consanguinity, I look on this herd as not only itself 

 hopeless, but as an actual menace to all other animals of like 

 nature confined within their vicinity. Of course there should be 



