Sicine Fever. 
risk. There would always be more or 
less disease amongst pigs whilst they 
had the law unequally administered 
in different parts of the country. 
The visits of the veterinary surgeons 
and the inspection of the districts 
were a very serious inconvenience to 
the pig trade. Farmers at that mo- 
ment would teU them that pigs 
were worth nothing, and that they 
were almost unsaleable. If they 
were really prepared to go to the 
Board of Agriculture saying that 
they must strike at the root of the 
evil and adopt these more stringent 
regulations in the way of the keeping 
of pigs, they would have a serious 
outcry all over the country, and he 
could not support such a resolution. 
He should feel much more incUned 
to strike swine fever altogether out 
of the list of contagious diseases. 
Sir XiGEL KIKGSCOTE could not at 
aU agree with Mr. Dent. Everyone 
admitted that swine fever was be- 
coming a serious scourge. If they 
gave compensation they got more 
swine fever than really existed. He 
did not think that the CouncU should 
express an opinion beyond saying that 
more stringent regulations should be 
adopted. But it was his own very 
strong view that it would be a very 
great step towards getting rid of the 
disease if, as Mr. Dent said in the 
first part of his remarks, all fairs and 
markets for pig^s were stopped for a 
certain period. At the present moment 
his experience was that in markets 
where auctions were held once a fort- 
night or once a month on turf, 
cobbles, or stones, the dirt between 
them could not be cleansed away ; 
those places could not be properly 
disinfected, and therefore the disease 
kept breaking out from time to time. 
He thought the Council would do well 
to call the attention of the Board of 
Agriculture to the matter by a general 
resolution, and he hoped that the 
remarks made there would reach the 
ears of the Minister of Agriculture, in 
order that he might see how to deal 
with the question. The responsibility 
lay with the Board of Agriculture. 
Mr. BowEX-JoxES was disposed to 
think that it was premature to ask 
the Board to take action, because un- 
less they imposed the most stringent 
measures they would not produce any 
effect at all upon the disease. It was 
well known to the Council that the 
Board of Agriculture had in hand the 
question of the extermination of 
pleuro-pneumonia, and in his opinion 
that was quite as much as they could 
thoroughly accomplish at the present 
time. When the disease was extir- 
pated — as he had no doubt it would 
be under the present system of manage- 
ment of the Board of Agriculture — he 
thought swine fever might be taken 
in hand, but till then he did not be- 
lieve that the Board would be able to 
cope with the two diseases. Nothing 
short of the stoppage of fairs and 
markets throughout the kingdom, and 
slaughter with compensation from the 
Imperial Exchequer, would enable 
them to combat swine fever any more 
than pleuro-pneumonia. He, there- 
fore, thought it rather premature to 
approach the Board except in general 
terms. He wished it to be distinctly 
understood that he onl}- offered these 
observations on the general ground 
that he thought it was not the oppor- 
tune time to ask the Board to deal 
with the question. If the terms of 
the resolution only called the attention 
of the Board to the matter in a general 
way, he did not object to its adop- 
tion. 
Mr. Howard said Mr. Dent was 
quite correct in stating that the stop- 
page of fairs and markets would very 
much interfere with practical business 
throughout the country, and that it 
would be unpopular. It appeared to 
him desirable that the county authori- 
ties should take this matter up. They 
had tried it_ in Bedfordshire, and had 
not given any compensation for some 
time past. At that moment they 
were free from swine fever. There 
was a very prevalent impression 
amongst farmers and practical men 
that a great many cases reported were 
not swine fever at all. He did not 
mean to say that because they stopped 
compensation that that had had the 
effect of stopping swine fever, but 
it made owners more particular as to 
the way in which they kept their pigs, 
instead of allowing them to wallow 
in filth and dirt, which was a certain 
and prolific source of the disease. 
Mr. Maetin quite endorsed what 
had been said by Mr. Howard bo far 
as the Isle of Ely was concerned. 
