162 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 



Dr. U. G. Houck, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the IlHnois State Dairymen's 

 Association : 



I am glad to be with you this morning and to see so many 

 of you present. I am always pleased to be present at meetings 

 of dairymen and farmers, for I was raised on a farm back in 

 the hills of Pennsylvania, where I learned to milk cows and 

 swing the cradle. 



In the first place, I don't pretend to be a public speaker. I 

 have missed many a good dinner by staying home from banquets 

 if I thought I would be called upon, but in the work with which 

 I am engaged at the present time I am rather forced into the 

 situation of making now and then a short talk. Yesterday I pre- 

 pared rather voluminous notes for an address on Foot anc 

 Mouth Disease, but I have changed my mind and am not going 

 to attempt to make a set address. We are just going to have a i 

 little talk on Foot and Mouth Disease. I want part of the time { 

 to be spent in round table talk. 



Foot and Mouth Disease is not a new disease. It is prob- 

 ably one of the diseases of which we read in Biblical history, ; 

 It has existed in countries of Asia from time immemorial, and ' 

 was introduced into Europe from Asia about two hundred years j 

 ago. At times it sweeps European countries like a vast wave, I 

 carrying everything before it, reaching to every valley and over- : 

 topping every mountain until all of the susceptible stock is af- j 

 fected. ! 



A great outbreak occurred in Germany in 1886- 1892. In ; 

 that outbreak 1,504,229 cattle, 2,193,187 sheep and 438,262 - 

 hogs were affected. They had another outbreak in 1889 and in ■ 

 1908, in which 324 townships were affected. In 1911 they had 1 



