1021.] PUBLIC DOCmiENT — No. 31. 59 a 



the individual cows given appropriate treatment. Although 

 the work is still in progress and cannot be completed until the 

 time arrives for the next crop of calves, a marked improvement 

 as regards the premature births and complications is to be 

 noted at the present time. Cows that have not been bred 

 successfully for many months are in calf, with every indication 

 that they will carry the fcjetus the full period of gestation. 



Conditions at the poultry plant were far more serious than 

 at the farm barn. A large number of birds showed symptoms 

 of disease and unthriftiness. When the Veterinary Department 

 was placed in charge of the poidtry plant, early in February, 

 it seemed probable that by appropriate methods of treatment 

 of the entire flock of about 2,000 birds, it might be possible 

 to eliminate the disease factor without resort to destruction of 

 the entire flock. It soon developed, however, that we were 

 able to make but little progress in arresting the spread of dis- 

 ease. After consultation with the representatives of the poultry 

 staff, and acting largely upon, their statement that the stock 

 on the plant was not entirely satisfactory from the poultry 

 husbandry point of view, it was decided to completely eliminate 

 the old flock and clean and disinfect the premises, leaving them 

 vacant for as long a time as possible before bringing a new 

 flock onto the place. 



To provide birds to take the place of those destroyed, eggs 

 from the tested, healthy birds then on the plant were saved, 

 incubated in sterile incubators, the chicks taken from the incu- 

 bators in sterile baskets to a tract of land in North Amherst 

 upon which no birds had been kept for years, and there raised 

 under the direction of persons in no way in contact with the 

 infected College plant. By this method about 2,700 healthy 

 young birds were raised to take the place of the old, diseased 

 flock that had been kept at the College plant. 



As soon as all birds on the College plant had been disposed 

 of early in July, a vigorous clean-up campaign was started. 

 All houses and yards were cleaned, fences removed, yards 

 plowed, etc. After the rough cleaning had been done, every 

 building, with equipment, was thoroughly disinfected with a 

 strong solution of a coal-tar disinfectant applied by means of 

 a power spray pump, which made it possible to drive the solu- 



