1921.] 



1087 



example, in four months of last year, there were more than 

 one million cases of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Spain, and the 

 cost of the isolation and cure policy in connection with them 

 may be estimated at well over five million pounds. The same 

 huge figure is quoted by a Dutch authority as the cost of 

 Foot-and-Mouth Disease to Holland in the two years 1919 and 

 1920, while in 1919 there were upwards of one hundred 

 thousand cases in France, and, for the first six months of 

 19*20, seventeen thousand cases in Germany. 



Apart from the vast expenditure involved in a policy that is 

 followed on the Continent only because territorial boundaries 

 are purely artificial and incapable of arresting a disease which 

 in all probability is air-borne, we have to consider the immense 

 disadvantages suffered by the Continental farmer. He is liable 

 at any moment to find not only his farm but his market closed, 

 and transport of stock forbidden for a long period whether by 

 road or rail. In this country, thanks, to the drastic but effective 

 measures in vogue, it has been possible to keep in check the 

 most dangerous outbreaks and reduce restrictions to a 

 minimum. On the rare occasions when the carelessness of 

 some dealer or farmer has rendered the sanitary cordon 

 temporarily ineffective, it has been possible to search out 

 infected or contact beasts and destroy them before outbreaks 

 can become widespread. 



In the opinion of all practical men who have given this 

 question, careful consideration and have surveyed the working 

 of the alternative, system on the Continent, the policy of the 

 Ministry has received ample justification from results, and, 

 while it is admitted that Foot-and-Mouth Disease is curable, 

 it must be acknowledged that any attempt to reverse the present 

 practice would result in making the disease endemic in these 

 Islands. This condition would have a very bad effect, not only 

 upon our great export trade in pedigree stock, but upon the 

 national supply of meat and milk and the normal conduct of 

 the farmer's business. 



It will be remembered that a Bee Disease Bill, drafted in 

 consultation with those actively interested in the industry, was 

 The Bee introduced into the House of Lords on the 

 Disease Bill ^ )ecem ^ >er * ast - Since then it has 



been decided that no new schemes 

 involving expenditure of public money can be proceeded with. 

 The Ministry has been compelled to inform bee-keepers that 



