434 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and that thus eventually the State will afford a market where 

 the owners of such worthless stock may receive a very large 

 profit, and, because of this fraudulent introduction, the State 

 can never eradicate the disease. 



Those who oppose the destruction of tuberculous animals 

 without compensation principally favor the payment to the 

 owner of a sum of money based upon a health value ; and their 

 reasons for advancing this will be stated under these head- 

 ings. In addition, however, they assert that, while many of the 

 animals which are destroyed as tuberculous are in fact worth- 

 less, a large number of them, especially of those which are de- 

 tected by the tuberculin test, have to the owner a real value, 

 because they have, under existing laws and in practice, an earn- 

 ing capacity at least equal to that of healthy stock ; that if the 

 State did not destroy them, under proper sanitary conditions 

 and where the disease was in its incipient stage, they might 

 possibly recover ; and in support of this they cite the hospital 

 statistics of post-mortem examinations showing that a certain 

 percentage of human beings who die have within them lesions 

 of consumption which arc entirely healed ; that certainl}' these 

 cows would under favorable conditions live for many years, 

 during which they would produce a substantial income to their 

 owners not only from the sale of milk, which in many cases is 

 unusually copious, but also from their calves, which are born 

 free from tuberculosis (it having been demonstrated that it is 

 not an hereditary disease), and which therefore might grow up 

 under healthful conditions, fed upon milk where the germ is not 

 present, and liecome perfectly healthy cattle in every respect. 

 In answer to this, however, those who favor no compensation 

 assert that, while in theory such calves may possibly grow up 

 to be healthy, in practice they are the first to become diseased, 

 because they inherit a weakened constitution and thus fall an 

 easy prey to the disease to which they are constantly exposed 

 through its presence in their parents. 



Second. — The payment to tlie owner of the actual value of the 

 animal at the time of slaughter^ based upon appraisal which 

 shall tahe into consideration the existence of the disease and all 

 other elements of value. 



Those who favor this proposition assert that by the adoption 

 of this rule justice w^ould be done not only to the owners of the 



