342 



NEW ENGLAND FARilER. 



Juo/ 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE CATTLE DISEASE. 

 BY JUDGE FREN'Cn. 



We have somewhat to say to the farmers of 

 the country on this topic. Travelling daily as 

 we do in the cars, reading all that is published 

 on the subject, and watching with careful interest 

 the evidence presented to the legislative commit- 

 tees, we have good opportunity for gaining infor- 

 mation, whatever use we may make of our privi- 

 leges. It requires some equanimity to hear with 

 serenity the stupidity of a portion of the com- 

 munity, who ought either to inform themselves, 

 or hold their peace on this vital question. Stu- 

 pidity is undoubtedly the unpardonable sin. A 

 lively, wide-awake, progressive sinner, we have 

 some hope of; but a dogged, mulish, thick-hided 

 old fogy, who rolls himself up in a heap, like a 

 porcupine, shuts his eyes, and sticks out his quills 

 in all directions, deserves such treatment as John 

 Quincy Adams advocated for the Chinese : a lit- 

 tle smell of fire and gunpowder, or one of its in- 

 gredients, to bring him into sympathy with the 

 breathing, moving world. 



Grave and respectable old physicians at the 

 State House, and elsewhere, suggest doubts of 

 the contagious nature of this disease, and ques- 

 tion whether there is any necessity for killing, or 

 even isolating the diseased cattle ; and editors of 

 political papers, who are anxious for occasion for 

 complaint against somebody v,-ho is in public ser- 

 vice, echo the idea, and howl their jeremiads 

 over the graves of the slaughtered. Then the 

 cry is taken up by small politicians and second- 

 rate doctors in the small villages where the dis- 

 ease has not appeared, and knotty questions of 

 constitutional law, and knottier questions of the 

 constitutions of cows and oxen, are gravely dis- 

 cussed, and sage doubts are suggested of the 

 wisdom of the course of the Commissioners and 

 the Legislature. 



"There is not sufficient evidence," say the grave 

 doctors, "that the disease is of a contagious, or 

 infectious character," and so there should be no 

 commissioners with power to interfere with the 

 cattle of our citizens. "And besides," says a 

 friend at hand, by way of hel])ing along the op- 

 position, "I believe these Commissioners spread 

 the disease themselves, by carrying it in their 

 clothes." 



"What need is thereof the State interfering?" 

 asks another ; "the farmers can take care of their 

 own business as well as traders and mechanics ; 

 they will be sharp enough to keep the disease 

 from spreading, without any help." "And what 

 right," chimes in a third, "has anybody to mark 

 my cattle with a hot iron, so as to spoil my sale 

 of them in the market ?" 



A large class who arc far enough fi-om the dis- 

 ease to be safe, are surprised that the whole coun- 

 try is so excited about a disease that is not knoAvn 

 to be contagious, and from which more than half 

 the cattle would recover, under judicious treat- 

 ment, cither by putting thom into warm stables, 

 with good keeping, so as to enable them to resist 

 consumptive tendencies, or by keeping them in 

 open, wcll-vcntilatcd, old-fashioned barns, "on 

 low diet ;" they don't exactly agree which. One 

 ])hilosophcr suggests, in a daily paper, that the 

 disease probably is induced by the cattle feeding 

 on grass raised with those disgusting manures 

 from slaughter-houses, and the like ; but he fails 

 to give us any cologne or rose-water substitute 

 for these disagreeable substances. 



Now, what are the facts as to the contagious 

 nature of this disease ? If any reliance can be 

 placed on human testimony, every case reported 

 in Massachusetts can be traced to actual contact 

 or actual association with animals known to be 

 diseased, and can be traced step by step back to 

 the cow imported from Holland by Mr. Chcnery. 



A little more than a hundred years ago, the 

 disease was imported into England from Holland, 

 and in six months 30,000 cattle died of it in 

 Cheshire County, and more than 40,000 in Not- 

 tinghamshire. Parliament treated it as a con- 

 tagious disease, and paid out nearly $500,000 in 

 a single year, to compensate for cattle killed un- 

 der its authority. During that year 80,000 head 

 of cattle were killed in England as infected, and 

 twice that number died of the disease, and by 

 such energetic means the malady was finally erad- 

 icated. In Africa, according to the interesting 

 account by Rev. Mr. Lindley, the same disease 

 has been raging now for several years, and is 

 only stayed by the entire isolation of the sound 

 districts. It is there known and treated as con- 

 tagious. 



In lSo7, 140,000 head of cattle were slaughtered 

 or died in only forty-three villages in Holland, 

 and there too the disease is regarded as con- 

 tagious. Regarding the disease as contagious and 

 alarming, the Governor of Massachusetts has 

 specially convened the Legislature to adopt meas- 

 ures to check its progress, the Commissioners 

 have unanimously recommended measures for 

 meeting the disease as contagious, and the joint 

 committee of the two houses has, after the fullest 

 investigation, reported bills in conformity with 

 this view. These bills, with slight amendments, 

 will doubtless become the law of the State, be- 

 fore these words are published. The States of 

 Ohio, of Maine, and of Connecticut, have each 

 sent Commissioners to this Commonwealth to 

 learn of the disease, and of the best modes of pre- 

 vention or remedy ; and the Legislature of New 

 Hampshire has invited a distinguished member 



