THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 103 



Many of the pure bred cattle owners and many dairymen in 

 Illinois are desirous of getting into communication with me con- 

 cerning the testing of their herd, but I am compelled to deny 

 them, for the reasons given. Even if I should, the owner would 

 lose all the diseased animals. He would do this principally for 

 the public good, and I do not think such procedure would be 

 proper. If it is for the public good, then the public should pay 

 for it. 



Conducting Tuberculin Test. 



Let us say that there is a farmer, a renter, who has 30 good 

 cows, that he has worked twenty years to get that little herd 

 together and perhaps is more or less in debt for them. They 

 have contracted tuberculosis through no fault of his. If he 

 should be forced to have them tested, and to destroy the reactors, 

 it would be a great loss to him. Suppose 20 out of the 30 should 

 react, then it is reasonable, from a scientific standpoint, to say 

 that 15 out of 20 have the disease only in a local form, and that 

 probably it will remain in a local form so long as those animals 

 should live, and that they would be worth just as much to that 

 man for milk, butter and cheese as if they were free from the 

 disease. Then what? Is it just to destroy those animals when 

 of value to him, and not recompense him. The method is wrong. 

 If it is to be of public interest, and if it shall bar that man and 

 his family from making a living, by destroying his cows, I say 

 no. He should receive compensation for them. 



Let me call your attention to another matter. If a man has 

 built up a dairy herd of cows, he alone knows that every cow is 

 not a good dairy cow, and consequently he may have to buy 

 eight or nine before he gets a real good one, and those that are 

 not good must be sold again. It takes years to accumulate a 

 good dairy herd. If such a man should get the full appraised 

 value of the good dairy cow, he is a loser, and to an extensive 

 degree too. No one knows this better than a practical dairyman. 



If you must have the tuberculin test, how should it be con- 

 ducted? Who can do it? Can the city do it? No. Can the 



