606 PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 



I have been asked, when the disease has broken out amongst 

 a lot of yearlings, whether they should be sold at once or 

 chanced. The law takes no cognizance of such a case, the 

 practice is advocated and carried out by those who, in ordi- 

 nary transactions, are scrupulously honest, and yet if you 

 probe the matter you cannot but admit that the person sell- 

 ing a lot of lean cattle affected with a spreading malady, 

 though perhaps only in the stage of incubation, is defraud- 

 ing the purchaser and the nation. Some may find relief 

 under the absurd supposition that diseases are not catching ; 

 but if any such individual is cross-questioned it will be found 

 that he would not have sold the cattle had he not believed 

 that the whole were in imminent danger, and that the ma- 

 jority must die. 



It is evident that such a practice is totally opposed to the 

 nation's best interests ; but in reality the public interest is 

 made up by the sum of private interests involved ; and 

 although at first sight the individual threatened with loss 

 thinks he had better clear out his bad stock, he may, at his 

 next purchase, be not a whit better off, from the very prac- 

 tice he has encouraged and followed out. I have satisfac- 

 torily found, in numerous cases, that it is unadvisable to clear 

 out a farm stock, and local means can be adopted to check 

 mortality with the greatest success. 



But there is another way in which the owner of diseased 

 animals is permitted to spread contagion, He is allowed to 

 send them by railway, to entrust them to a salesman, and to 

 expose them amongst healthy cattle that are to be transferred 

 to different parts of the country for grazing purposes. Fat 

 or not fat, they are exposed without restriction, and any 

 amount of good stock may be contaminated. A dairyman 

 in town has a cow taken seriously ill. A number of hungry 

 neshers are ready for her at a good sum, but in order to 



