174 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



bovine tuberculosis bears to tuberculosis in the human. Some- 

 times it passes from the bovine to the human, although gener- 

 ally it is from human to human ; but we have not time tonight 

 to deal with this important sanitary relation. 



The question with you is an economical question. We will 

 lay down this fundamental proposition : Can you afford to let 

 tuberculosis go on without attempting to stamp it out? How 

 does it get into our herd? This disease cannot originate, it is 

 brought into our herd by some germ, and it is introduced into 

 our herd in ninety-five cases out of a hundred by taking in ani- 

 mals that are affected with the seeds of this disease but not ad- 

 vanced far enough so it is noticeable to ordinary inspection. 



Under these conditions you buy an animal supposing that 

 animal is healthy; there is no man living that can detect this 

 disease where it is based upon physical symptoms in the earlier 

 stages. We buy and sell these animals in the earlier stages with- 

 out being able to detect the disease. It makes no difference 

 whether you pay two or three hundred dollars and hire a sire 

 or whether you go and buy a springer for a period of time. It 

 comes in a majority of cases by introducing an animal affected 

 in the earlier stages. It has been true in our own state over and 

 over again. Out of 263 herds I inspected I traced the original 

 in 260 herds to the purchase of animals from outside sources. 

 That has led us in Wisconsin to put upon our Statute Books a 

 law which compels the testing of animals for dairy purposes so 

 with each cow there is a clean bill of health. Could we have 

 gotten that law in the start in Wisconsin? We certainly could 

 not; that law is there because of a campaign of education, not 

 compulsory education but more particularly brought about by 

 the agricultural colleges. 



We prepared bulletins and distributed them widely through- 

 out the state ; these were illustrated and made as attractive and 

 prepared as thoroughly as possible. What was the result with 

 that kind of a paper campaign? We were getting an appropria- 

 tion of a thousand dollars a year, and then it came to my mind 

 if we were going to do anything toward putting out this fire 



