446 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



thereby planting the bifection widely in new herds. Compensation 

 must stop short of making the sanitary bureau a profitable customer 

 for tuberculous animals at sound prices^ but it must be so liberal 

 as to enlist the ready co-operation of the stock owner in havivg every 

 infected beast safely disposed of Cases of advanced generalized 

 tuberculosis may in all justice be listed at a low rate, as they are in 

 every sense unfit to live, and are an expense, a danger r^.nd a nuisance 

 even when dead. Cases, too, that have just been imported from 

 another State or country, and which are either manifestly diseased 

 or taken from a tuberculous herd, may fairly be excluded from in- 

 demnity, and above all from a liberal indemnity. But in nearly every 

 herd the majority of the stock condemned are to all outward appear- 

 ances sound animals, and the owner has had no suspicion concerning 

 them until this has been betrayed by the tuberculin test. But for that 

 he would have gone on utilizing the animals in perfect good faith, 

 and his customers would have received the dairy products in all con- 

 fidence as to their wliolesomeness. Had he wished to sell these ani- 

 mals for the dairy or for beef, he would liave found plenty of purchasers 

 at sound market rates. If the stock were thoronghbred and their 

 i:)rogeny of a high prospective value, he could have continued to 

 breed from them for years, — since calves are rarely born tubercu- 

 lous, not once in many thousand births, even from tuberculous par-, 

 ents ; and thus he might have largely profited by raising them on the 

 milk of healthy cows. Then, again, in country districts the owner 

 must bear the cost of disposing of the carcass by burning or burial 

 in some place to which other animals do not have access. Further, 

 the essential work of disinfecting the premises is at present put on 

 the shoulders of the stock owner. Once more, if the stock owner is 

 a dairyman, his trade is injured by the condemnation of animals in 

 his herd. Customers ivill suddenly change to other dairies, creameries 

 will be closed against his milk, and health officers are likely to quarantine 

 tjie product, at least betiveen the coyidemnation and slaughter. Apart 

 from this, his home supply of milk is lessened, and to keep his cus- 

 tomers he must go into the market and buy milk fi'om others. 



It is quite evident that in many cases of dairy herds and of valu- 

 able thoroughbred animals an indemnity amounting to even the sound 

 market value of the animals killed comes far short of reimbursing the 

 owner for his actual losses. 



These considerations should be taken fully into account, before 

 adopting any proposal to fix a maximum sum or rigid rule for esti- 

 mating values. 



