clxxx Deputation to the President of the Board of Agrimlture, 
Farmers’ Club, that he was Chairman 
of the Norfolk Chamber of Agricul- 
ture this year, and that he was, fur- 
ther, Chairman of the Cattle Diseases 
Committee of the County of Norfolk. 
But he would rather represent him- 
self as a sorrowful — though he hoped 
an honest — grazier. He had in the last 
few winters grazed over 200 of these 
Canadian stores ; and he was bound 
to say that, with one exception — in 
which the unfortunate animal swal- 
lowed a bit of wire — the whole of 
these cattle had been remarkably 
healthy, and that, therefore, they fed 
very well on the whole, and paid as 
well as cattle did pay in these days 
of distress in agriculture. 
He could not at first bring himself 
to believe in the truth of the report 
that contagious pleuro-pneumonia had 
broken out among a cargo of these 
cattle from Canada, but from the 
action taken by the Board there was 
not the slightest doubt that this was 
the case. Therefore they attended 
to ask the Board to schedule Canada 
in the same way as the United States 
was scheduled at the present moment. 
He would further remark that it was 
very much to the detriment of the 
winter graziers in the county of 
Norfolk to stop the importation of 
these Canadian stores, whilst at the 
same time he recognised what the 
Board of Agriculture had done for 
them in almost entirely exterminating 
pleuro-pneumonia from their midst. 
This was the third year in which the 
Department had taken over this dis- 
ease, from which the country had 
suffered for almost forty years. They 
were very grateful to the Board for 
what they had done for them. There- 
fore, they thought and believed that 
the same action would be taken to 
protect them against the importation 
of diseased animals from abroad. 
Sir John Swinburne said that 
he had the honour on that occasion 
to represent the Smithfield Club, of 
which he was President. He had 
himself been a breeder of cattle 
during the last quarter of a century. 
This matter of pleuro-pneumonia, 
therefore, appealed to him person- 
ally, and also to him in his official 
capacity, with great force. 300,000^. 
had been spent in a few years in 
stamping out tliis most insidious 
disease, which was most difficult to 
detect. They did not ask for pro- 
tection for their trade, but they did 
ask for protection from disease. 
Mr. S. P. Foster apologised for 
the absence of the Vice-President of 
the Shorthorn Society, who was not 
able to attend that day on account 
of the short notice. As he (Mr. 
Gardner) was aware, the breeders of 
Shorthorns represented both in value 
and numbers a very large proportion 
of the cattle in England ; and he 
might say that in the county of 
Cumberland it cost the ratepayers 
8,000^. in one year to stamp out pleuro- 
pneumonia only two years ago, and 
he could point to two valuable herds 
of Shorthorns which had had imported 
into their herds one, or at the most 
two, cases of pleuro-pneumonia. 
One was a very valuable herd, only 
three miles from him (Mr. Foster) in 
Cumberland. The whole of this 
herd was slaughtered because of one 
cow which had been subjected to 
pleuro-pneumonia. It was only fair 
that, if their cattle were to be put 
down, imported cattle should be 
p>laced in the same category. 
Mr. Walter Gilbey said that Mr. 
Gardner had heard the remarks of 
those gentlemen who represented 
societies, and Sir John Thorold had 
ably represented what had been stated 
at the Council meeting of the Eoyal 
Agricultural Society. It was his in- 
terest in the county of Essex that 
brought him there. He was a tenant- 
farmer, lining amongst tenant-far- 
mers. He could support aU that they 
had stated, and he asked him (Mr. 
Gardner) to carry out their wishes. 
The tenant-farmers in a grazing dis- 
trict like Essex could never buy store 
cattle so cheaply as at the present 
time, and this should be a great in- 
ducement to farther restrictions being 
put upon cattle coming from Canada. 
He was at a farmhouse the other day 
where thirty head of Hereford cattle 
had been bought at Al. 10s. a head. 
With so convincing a proof, it ought 
to satisfy the world that putting on 
restrictions would not increase the 
value of cattle in this country. He 
respectfully asked the President to 
take the matter into consideration, 
and do what they wished, if he should 
see it in his power. 
