W'UL 
lt aTW0 3 
>oURNAv f? 
^1~RY HO 
Vol. I,XXIX. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. MAY 21. 1921 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. 1873. at the Post ... . 
Office at New York. N. Y.. under the Act of March 3. 1870. No. -+(>.>.r 
Bliminatin^Tuberculosis from Breeding Herd 
A I'l-RS()NAI. STATEMENT.—('an t uberculosis 
be eliminated from a herd of dairy cattle? Is 
if practical to do it. and is it desirable? In answer¬ 
ing thesi* questions, which are at the present time 
more or less in the mind of every owner of dairy 
cattle, particularly purebred cattle, I can only give 
ft first-hand account of my own experience and put 
down the conclusions which I myself have drawn, 
others may not agree with these conclusions, and 1 
may want to change my mind in regard to them later 
myself. For seven or eight years now I have owned 
dairy cattle and, as I have bought and sold, done 
but 1 did not test the rest of my herd and put these 
tested animals right in with them. Why a man will 
do such foolish things is hard to explain, but I know 
that T have not been alone in committing this mis¬ 
take. T ran my herd along a year with the mixed 
tested and untested cows in it. all the time worrying 
about it and wondering where I was at. Then a 
year ago last Spring 1 determined to meet the issue 
squarely and test the whole herd. As a preparation 
for doing this 1 did the natural thing to protect 
myself from loss and insure the maximum benefits 
should I succeed in accomplishing my purpose of 
no tuberculin tested at such times as should be con¬ 
sidered necessary by the Bureau and State officials. 
(2) Promptly dispose of any animals which re¬ 
acted to the tuberculin test, according to the recom¬ 
mendation of the Bureau or Stale officials. 
(3) Not to introduce into my herd any cattle 
which had not passed a tuberculin test approved by 
the Government officials. 
(4) Thoroughly disinfect any premises which 
might have been contaminated by tuberculous 
animals. 
In addition to these four main points of agreement 
■ 
Imported Three-pear-old Jersey Cow Ridotte, Showing Marked Dairy Capacity. Fig. >8$ 
more or less tuberculfn testing. From this miscel¬ 
laneous testing I am free to confess that 1 learned 
little. Billing that period I remember striking bur 
one or two reactors, this despite the fact that one 
or two cows died in the herd and when examined 
wore found to have been tubercular. 
STAB l IXG RIGHT.—Two years ago I decided to 
buy a number of purebred Guernseys and to event¬ 
ually run a purebred Guernsey herd. Of course l 
specified that the cows I bought be tuberculin tested, 
eliminating the disease. This was to sign up the 
so-called Accredited Herd agreement with the State 
and Federal Bureaus of Animal Industry. 
THE ACCREDITED HERD PLAN.—Under the 
terms of the Accredited Herd Agreement, which i< 
between the individual owner and the Bureaus of 
Animal Industry of the United States Department 
of Agriculture and the State Department of Agri¬ 
culture, 1 agreed to: 
(1) Permit my entire herd, or any cattle in it, to 
the contract also provided for the keeping of reacting 
animals under certain restrictions, mainly that they 
be kept separate from healthy animals and that the 
milk from them be thoroughly pasteurized before 
used for any purpose whatsoever. In consideration 
of this agreement I was promised that when my 
herd should pass two annual or three semi-annual 
tuberculin tests of a nature approver! by the Bureau 
of Animal Industry, and administered by a joint 
representative of the United States Department of 
