2 4 o ANIMAL ARTISANS 



cattle in their animals has led to some useful dis- 

 coveries as to the difference in constitution between 

 those kept in the open and those living under cover. 

 When the tuberculin test was applied to milking-cows 

 kept shut up in town dairies, such as was once the 

 universal rule in London before the milk supply came 

 in by train, nearly ninety per cent, of the cows which 

 had been entirely in the sheds for from one to two 

 years showed " reaction " i.e. symptoms that they were 

 affected with the disease. Of those kept under cover, 

 but sent out for part of the day for exercise, a much 

 smaller percentage were affected, but the figures were 

 still high. Of cattle kept entirely in the open, either 

 none or only two per cent, "reacted" when tested. 



One of the oldest and best herds of Jersey cattle 

 in England cattle which from the fineness of their 

 frame and skin are supposed to be " delicate" (i.e. 

 to suffer from the weather) lives almost entirely 

 in the open, and what shelter it enjoys is of a kind 

 which might almost be supposed to be rather less 

 useful than none. The animals are tied up at night 

 in an open shed, with no front wall, and the snow or 

 rain drifts in among them. The roof is so narrow 

 that the drip only just clears their bodies, and being 

 tied up, they can do little to change their position. 

 Doubtless those of the present generation represent 

 the survival of the fittest. But the death-rate is 

 unusually low. Air and light are the great enemies 

 of tuberculosis, which seems to typify the idea of the 

 actual destruction of bodily tissue more than almost 

 any other. The same also holds good in the case of 



