safe and comfortable style. Magnificent iron cattle-ships were con- 
structed, with permanent fittings, and having all the comfort, conveni- 
ence, and safety which human ingenuity could provide. The losses of 
cattle in transit were soon reduced to the minimum of about one-third 
of 1 percent. ‘Tne cattle were unloaded in as good condition, as vig- 
orous, and healthy as they were when they went on board Asa result 
of the improved conditions, and the greatly diminished losses, insurance 
rates were reduced from $8 and upwards per head of exported cattle to 
less than $1 per head. ‘his saving of insurance alone, with an average 
exportation of 325,000 head, amounts to $2,275,000 per year, nearly 
three times the entire cost of maintaining the Bureau. 
INSPECTION AND QUARANTINE OF IMPORTED ANIMALS. 
If the eradication of contagious diseases is important—and this is a 
proposition scarcely admitting of question—it is no less important to 
stop the importation of contagion with animals coming into the country. 
Accordingly, one of the first steps taken for the control of contagious 
diseases among animals was the establishment of quarantine stations at 
the principal Atlantic ports, where imported animals might be detained 
until there was no longer any danger of the development of disease from 
exposure to contagion in other countries. These stations were at first 
under the direction of the Treasury Department, but soon after the 
organization of the Bureau of Animal Industry they were transferred to 
its control. 
It was only the realization that pleuro- pneumonia had been allowed 
to spread to a considerable though unknown extent among our herds, 
and had caused serious restrictions to be placed upon our export cattle 
trade, that led our Government to take even this first step for the protec~ 
tion of American live stock. We had taken the risk of importing the 
most destructive plagues for years without giving them much thought. 
Our people, always buoyant and optimistic, and never willing to con- 
sider danger or admit the possibility of trouble until it is upon them, 
could not be induced to guard against the danger to which they were ex- 
posed until they had actually experienced some of the inconvenience 
and loss which come from the neglect of such precautions. The estab- 
lishment of quarantine stations furnished the necessary means to exclude 
further importations of contagion, and permitted us to undertake the 
eradication of pleuro-pneumonia with confidence that when the exist- 
ing centers of the disease had been discovered and stamped out we 
should not be troubled by new outbreaks caused by imported cattle. 
Three stations are maintained on the Atlantic coast—one at the port 
of Boston, one at New York, and one at Baltimore. In the early years 
of these stations, several importations of animals affected with foot-and- 
mouth disease were detected, and one importation of pleuro-pneumonia 
was discovered in the Canadian quarantine. During recent years certifi- 
cates of healthfulness and freedom from exposure have been required to 
accompany imported animals, and permits for importation are refused 
for animals from countries in which dangerous contagious diseases are 
prevalent. 
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