54 BULLETIN 106, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The proposed method of handling abortion and sterility is merely 
repressive, however important. We do not hope thereby to eliminate 
either abortion or the granular venereal disease from the herd, but 
only that we shall be able, at a justifiable cost, to reduce the losses 
from abortion and sterility. Accepting the infections of the genital 
tract as permanent, any measures against them should have a similar 
continuity and be accepted as one of the elements in the operation 
of dairying. 
THE PRODUCTION OF SOUND HERDS. 
Abortion and sterility are not alone in reducing the efficiency in 
dairying and breeding herds. In many herds similar losses occur 
from calf scours and pneumonia and from tuberculosis. These three 
great dairy scourges cause their chief devastation in the young. 
Scours and pneumonia destroy most of their victims during the first 
few weeks after birth. Abortion and sterility play their greatest havoc 
among cows and heifers 2 to 4 years old. Tuberculosis largely has 
its origin through the food of the calf, or the heifer becomes affected 
during her first years in the dairy. If cattle breeding and dairying 
are to be placed upon a more secure basis, it is first of all essential to 
maintain in health the new-born calves. 
Calf scours and pneumonia have been sufficiently investigated that 
their nature is well enough known to undertake prevention with a 
reasonable measure of confidence. A method has been pointed out 
and its feasibility demonstrated whereby calves may be raised free 
from tuberculosis in spite of tuberculous parents. The measures 
advisable for the repression and prevention of these can be made to 
answer in large measure for the control of abortion and sterility, and 
any needed additions to the sanitary measures for the control of 
abortion would add to the efficiency of the measures relating to the 
other maladies. 
The maternity and calf stables of our larger dames and more 
important breeding herds constitute the fundamental source of the 
chief losses amongst dairy cattle. It is a notable fact that in many 
of our highest class, or highest, classed, dairies the dairy stables are 
extravagantly well built, while the maternity and calf barns are 
disgraceful old ramshackles, more worthy of being called pest houses. 
The control of dairy plagues must begin and be most exact with the 
newborn calf when it is most vulnerable to disease, and in large 
dairy and breeding establishments the proper handling of the cow 
at the time of parturition and the care of the newborn calf should 
have first place in the entire scheme. 
The infections causing calf scours and pneumonia, abortion and 
sterility, and tuberculosis are so thoroughly disseminated that for 
practical purposes, with some exceptions in relation to tuberculosis, 
