INSPECTION, GOVERNMENT AND STATE. 401 



This process was responsible for the scattering of the infection 

 over wide portions of territory. Far better would it have been if 

 some method coiild have been found to compel a thorough 

 cleaning of the flocks of Xew ilexico, compelling every sheep 

 leaving the Territory for other States to be dipped before being 

 loaded on the cars. Then if they had been dipped thoroughly 

 again on arrival at their destination, the disease would have been 

 under control, and the danger of transmitting infection reduced 

 to a minimum. We- believe lately better methods are being taken 

 to guard against these conditions, and that a supervision of rail- 

 Toad cars and their thorough disinfection is being taken in hand, 

 which is sure to produce beneficial results. Dr. Charles Gress- 

 well, State Veterinary Surgeon and Secretary of the Colorado 

 State Veterinary Sanitary Board, writes concerning inspection as 

 follows : 



"I am strongly in favor and always have been of rigorous 

 inspection regulations, mainly with the object of protecting own- 

 ers of improved stock, who, of course, suffer the most from negli- 

 gence of owners of less valuable animals. It is a noted fact that 

 scab does more injury in direct proportion to improvement of 

 breed and artificial handling. The owner of the wild ^Mexican 

 sheep suffers but little in comparison to the owner of well-bred 

 Shropshires or other pure-breeds. The same idea holds good with 

 cattle, so the whole question resolves itself into one of rigorous 

 inspection or no inspection whatever. "With no inspection at all 

 herds of sheep and cattle will gradually become more or less im- 

 mune to contagious diseases which affect them, although with a 

 great loss in the process. Animals raised by artificial selection 

 and under our present domesticated conditions have little or no 

 power to resist disease, and the ravages of disease among them are 

 always very expensive. Therefore modified inspection is apt to 

 make people think they are secure. They go in for the improved 

 conditions, and then suffer from imperfectly executed inspection 



