92 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



It is from this cause, mainly, that the disease has been 

 always more prevalent at the end of the summer than in 

 spring, and at the present time we still find more disease 

 in districts such as Brooklyn and its outskirts, where, 

 owing to local obstructions, we have been unable to en- 

 force a sound pasturage law, than in New York and else- 

 where, where this law has been respected. In these city 

 commons we have the counterpart, on a small scale, of 

 the immense common pastures of the Eussian steppes, 

 and the Australian and South African ranges, and it is 

 mainly to this characteristic and to the special features 

 of the cow trade in the cities that the lung plague has 

 been maintained in America for the past 36 years. 



Facilities for Secret Sale and Slaughter. — The preserva- 

 tion of the plague in cities is further favored by the ease 

 with which the sick may be thrown on the meat market. 

 In country districts the prejudice is so strong that it ig 

 usually impossible to dispose of even a sound animal 

 from an infected herd to any district butcher. But in 

 the cities the source of the beef as not so easily ascer- 

 tained and butchers are not slow to kill anything that 

 stands upon four legs. Hence the owner will often hide 

 the existence of the disease to save his milk business and 

 dispose of the sick for beef. 



Were the city possessed of but one abattoir, this 

 might be easily controlled ; but when slaughter houses 

 are scattered every where and cattle are killed at all 

 times of the day and night, this is difficult or impracti- 

 ble and at best very expensive. 



I cannot do better than quote the measures we have 

 adopted ia New York to meet these conditions. 



1. CONTEOL OP ImPOETS. 

 Sowce.— Cows and store cattle are admitted only as 

 they come by the Hudson Eiver E. E. and Harlem E. E. 

 from points north of Putnam County ; by the New Haven 



