306 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



The interesting experiments carried out by Professor 

 Bang at Thurebylille, with not the most satisfactory 

 means for separation, seem to go far to establish the 

 soundness of this theory. " With the exception of two 

 cases of inborn tuberculosis, and one doubtful case, thus 

 far no calf of the re-acting cows since the beginning of 

 the experiment has later shown itself to be tuberculous." 

 A careful and vigilant persistence in the method seems 

 likely " to gradually change a tuberculous herd into an 

 entirely healthy one," all the suspicious animals being 

 isolated and gradually got rid of, under circumstances 

 which prevent them from spreading the disease further. 



Sir T. D. Gibson-Carmichael, Bart, M.P., has carried 

 out an experiment on nearly similar lines with his herd 

 of Aberdeen- Angus cattle at Castlecraig since 1894. 

 An interesting report has recently been prepared by Mr 

 James Wilson, Fordyce Lecturer in Agriculture, Aber- 

 deen University.^ 



In this experiment the calves have been treated on 

 the hypothesis that " milk as it comes from the udder is 

 germ free except when the milk gland is in a diseased 

 condition." The calves of the re-acting cows were 

 accordingly allowed to suckle till the autumn, but kept 

 separate from the calves of the sound cows until they 

 had been subjected to the test. Of twenty bull calves 

 in 1895, seven were from tuberculous cows. Yet the 

 whole of these passed the test in the autumn of 1895, 

 and again in January 1896, two of them having been 

 sold before this second test. 



The experiment, so far as it has gone, seems to show 

 that this policy must certainly restrict and arrest the 

 spread of disease, that it is possible to breed safely from 

 slightly diseased animals, and that the disease may 

 steadily be eliminated. 



If it is objected that the cost of the inoculations, and 

 of the close observation and repeated examinations of 

 temperature of the inoculated animals, on the precision 

 and accuracy of which the whole value of the process 



' "The Results of the use of Tuberculin in the Castlecraig Herd." 

 Edinburgh, G. P. Johnston. 1896. 



