320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Recommendations. 



Right here I wish to say that this Bureau should have 

 more extended authority over sanitary conditions of stables 

 and other farm buildings. Nothing so directly affects the . 

 health of animals as the conditions under which they are 

 housed. We may enter the stables and inspect the cattle ; we 

 may condemn the infected members of the herd, and order 

 their removal. On the other hand, the barn may be reeking 

 with filth, poorly lighted and ventilated, a hotbed of disease 

 germs ; yet into such dangerous surroundings, after we have 

 taken out the diseased cattle, the owner may bring healthy 

 cattle which in turn may become infected from these impure 

 and unhealthy conditions. We should be clothed with power 

 to open such barns to the air and sunlight and to cleanse 

 them in a suitable manner, if our cattle work is to be crowned 

 with success. 



The State Board of Health has among its multifarious 

 duties the supervision of buildings in which dairy cattle are 

 kept, but its agents apparently do not see the conditions quite 

 as we see them, nor do they have our opportunity to advise 

 the needed reform at a time when such advice is most likely 

 to be effective. A vesting of such authority in the Cattle 

 Bureau would be in the interest of intelligent classification of 

 work. 



Another matter to which I desire to call your attention is 

 one in which authority is divided between the State Board of 

 Health and the Cattle Bureau. Under the law the Cattle 

 Bureau furnishes stamps or brands to local boards of health 

 applying therefor, to be used by meat inspectors in their 

 respective localities. It also issues rules and regulations con- 

 forming to those of the United States Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry, under which the meat inspectors must work. But 

 these inspectors are not appointed by this Bureau, nor is their 

 appointment subject to its approval, and, still further, this 

 Bureau cannot hold them responsible for any failure to per- 

 form their duties. They are responsible to the local boards of 

 health, over which the State Board of Health has advisory 

 power. Here seems to be an unnecessary tangle of authority 



