BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



211 



lias probably never during that, time l>een entirely free from pleuropneumonia. 

 In Maryland the assertion has been made again and again that there were no eases 

 of this disease in the Stale, and yet during any part of this time a thorough inspec- 

 tion could not havo failed to reveal a considerable number. At best the attempt! of 

 the States havo been spasmodic; and while one State was earnestly striving to accom- 

 plish something a neighboring one would allow the shipment of diseased cattle, and 

 counteract the intluence of the former. As a rule, therefore State action has never 

 been thorough, and the lack of unity of action between the States has prevented any 

 lasting beneht even when much has been accomplished. 



ADVANTAGES OF THE WORK BEING DIRECTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERN- 

 MENT. 



A national directiou of the work for the extermination of pleuro-pueumonia 

 would overcome at once the discouraging features which have done so much to pre- 

 vent the efforts of the individual States from being effective. With inspections in 

 ever; infected State the shipment of diseased cattle would soon cease; new out- 

 breaks would thus be prevented, and the danger which has so long menaced the 

 great cattlo interests of the country would be removed. The work would be more 

 thorough and energetic, because those engaged in it would not be directly or indi- 

 rectly dependent upon the good-will of the interested cattlo owners for their posi- 

 tions, and the plea of inability to pay for the diseased cattle which ought to be 

 slaughtered would also be overcome. These have been the principal obstacles to the 

 success of State action, and practically they are so great as to make it next to im- 

 possible for the States alone to free themselves from this plague. 



THE PRESENCE OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA COSTS ANNUALLY MORE THAN WOULD BE 

 NECESSARY FOR ITS DESTRUCTION. 



Owing to the prcsenco of pleuro-pneumonia in the United States, every steer shipped 

 to Great Britain must be slaughtered within a certain time on the wharf where he is 

 landed. This restriction upon the export cattle trade is said by competent authori- 

 ties to make tin; price of our steers average SjlOless than similar animals shipped from 

 Canada. With over 100,000 beeves going abroad every year, this makes a loss of 

 $1,000,000 annually, or enough to clear our country of the disease. Besides this, there 

 are the continual losses which are going on in the infected districts, and the disturbed 

 condition of trade from the many false alarms in regard to the spread of this disease, 

 the entire annual losses being estimated by good authorities as high as $3,000,000. 



IMPORTANCE OF INVESTIGATING OTHER DISEASES. 



The proposition of establishing a permanent bureau for investigating the communi- 

 cable diseases of animals is a matter of the greatest importance. While we have no 

 more disease than other countries in proportion to the number of our animals, the 

 enormous development of our live-stock industry has made the question of contagious 

 diseases one of peculiar interest to us. The cause of these plagues, which has been 

 an impenetrable mystery during all the past ages of the Avorld, is being revealed by 

 the science of to-day, and the infinitely small organisms which are able to produce 

 such terrible havoc in our flocks and herds are at last being brought under subjection 

 themselves, and their study has revealed much of the greatest value to us in our 

 warfare against them. A country with so much at stake, with millions of dollars an- 

 nually swept away by this class of maladies, cannot afford to be idle. , Other nations 

 which have much less capital invested in animals than we have, see the necessity for 

 this work and are making provisions for it; and it is to the credit of our country 

 that wo were one of the first to enter this lield, and that results have been accom- 

 plished which will bear comparison with the investigations of any other country. 

 But while much has been done, while millions of dollars have already been saved to 

 our farmers by the facts thus far discovered, we have only made a beginning in the 

 great work that is before us. Some of the most important diseases affecting our ani- 

 mals are still mysteries to us, and though they are distributed over large territories 

 and decimate the live stock, we are ignorant of their cause; we do not know how 

 they are kept up from year to year ; we have no means of combating them, and the idea 

 of freeing ourselves from their ravages has scarcely dawned upon us. A striking ex- 

 ample of the necessity of such work is seen in the recent investigations of Texas cattlo 

 fever. This disease has been advancing and infecting new territory for a century, 

 and until the last year or two we knew nothing about it, and our best informed vet- 

 erinaiians and stockmen did not suppose that it was found in one-fifth of the terri- 

 tory which it has actually overrun. These were points which it was necessary to un- 

 derstand before either legislative bodies or individuals could adopt intelligent meas- 

 ures fpr preventing the annual losses which have been most discouraging to the cattle 



