70 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



other State, and there are usually three times as many voluntary 

 requests on file for the application of the test as can be made. It is 

 suggested by Dr. Mohler, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, that 

 provision should perhaps be made to pay TO per cent of the price of 

 all condemned animals, not to exceed $30 per head for common stock 

 and $60 for registered stock. Dr. W. H. McLain, commissioner of 

 health of Wheeling, W. Va., is inclined to the opinion that the owner 

 should receive about 75 per cent of the value of cattle condemned as 

 a result of the tuberculin test. 



The Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry takes the position 

 that owners should be compensated, at least in part, for cattle con- 

 demned, and that the respective States where cattle are owned should 

 make provision for compensation for cattle slaughtered as a result of 

 the tuberculin test, several States having, he remarks, already laws 

 providing for such compensation. Dr. Melvin refers to the basis of 

 condemnation in recent cases in the District of Columbia, which may 

 be briefly stated as follows : Cattle were appraised before slaughter, the 

 appraisal not to exceed $75 for a pure-bred or registered animal, or 

 $50 for a grade or unregistered animal. Eighty per cent of the 

 appraised value, less the amount realized as salvage, was paid on 

 cattle whose carcasses were passed for food on post-mortem inspec- 

 tion, and 40 per cent, less salvage, in the case of cattle condemned for 

 offal. If a reacting animal showed no lesions of tuberculosis on post- 

 mortem examination, the full appraised value, less salvage, was paid. 



This arrangement was followed in carrying out the order of the 

 District Commissioners " for the suppression and prevention of 

 tuberculosis in cattle," dated November 26, 1909, and now operative 

 in the District of Columbia, the regulations having received the 

 approval of the Secretary of Agriculture on the following day. The 

 committee is prepared to recommend this scale of compensation as 

 best adapted to secure justice to the herd owner. The granting of an 

 indemnity for animals shown by the tuberculin test to be diseased will 

 do more toward making the test popular with cattle owners than any 

 other possible action and will have the further incidental but mate- 

 rially important effect, if tuberculosis can be eradicated from dairy 

 herds with but slight loss to the owner, of making it unnecessary to 

 materially increase the price of milk to the consumer or to deprive 

 the children of the poorer classes wholly or partially of this necessary 

 article of diet. 



EFFECT OF COMPULSORY TUBERCULIN TEST ON PRICE OF MILCH COWS. 



It hr.s been urged that the enforcement of the tuberculin test with 

 regard to all animals supplying milk to the District would result in 

 a material augmentation of the price of milch cows, which have, it 

 is alleged, experienced an increase from $35 to perhaps $65 per head 

 during the past 10 years in this section of the country. 



There is a wide diversity of opinion as to the effect of the enforce- 

 ment of the tuberculin test on the price of cattle, referring particu- 

 larly to the price of milch cows. It has been contended before the 

 committee by a representative of the local Dairymen's Association 

 that the price of cows would be increased from 20 to 30 per cent, 

 while the president of the Milk Producers' Association has estimated 

 25 per cent as the probable advance in cost of cows. This contention 



