398 INSPECTION, GOVERXMEXT AND STATE. 



are being fed, that the only method for the eradication of the 

 pest is to place a rigid quarantine on diseased stock 

 wherever they may be found. An instance can be quoted here 

 to illustrate the desirability of some such proceeding. In 1896, 

 in a Western feeding district where considerably over 100,000 

 lambs are fed every year for the Eastern markets, principally 

 Chicago, the majority of the flocks were affected with scab — in 

 fact, all but one or two. These animals, while they were thor- 

 oughly dipped, were by no means in all cases cured, but were 

 released from the State quarantine and shipped to Chicago, be- 

 cause, as it appeared, scabby sheep arriving there for immediate 

 slaughter were passed by the authorities, and it would have been 

 detrimental to the interests of the sheep-feeders of that State to 

 have had their flocks held in quarantine while others were per- 

 mitted access to the market. The mere fact that the transporta- 

 tion of animals suffering from such a disease would infect the 

 railroad cars to the further danger and damage of other shippers 

 does not appear to have entered into their calculations. They 

 were not engaged then in protecting their neighbors' territory, 

 and the result now is apparent. Whereas, the scab was mostly 

 confined some years ago to certain sections of the country, nota- 

 bly the Western States and Territories, now we find it has been 

 scattered broadcast; that clean sheep in feeding lots are the 

 exception and not the rule, the trouble having followed the lines 

 ■of the railroads till it is unsafe to load absolutely healthy sheep 

 on railroad cars and after shipment place them with a flock free 

 of disease, as they carry with them the infection from the cars, 

 which in a short time will cause outbreaks of scabies in the flock 

 to which they have been admitted. 



The following regulations refer to the inter-State transpor- 

 tations of sheep: 



