THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Ma.n"—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 For the Week Ending May 19, 1923 Number 20 
How Shall We Control TB? 
New York State Farm Bureau Committee Arrives at Some Conclusions 
T he following questions were put by 
the New York State Farm Bureau 
Federation Committees on Tubercu¬ 
losis Eradication to a representative 
gathering of County Tuberculosis Com¬ 
mittees at a conference held in Ithaca, on 
on May 1: 
1. Should Bovine tuberculosis in New York State 
be eradicated? Why? 
2. Should the State continue to subsidize eradica¬ 
tion? 
A. By Indemnities? 
B. By free testing, by state veterinarian, or 
county veterinarians? 
3. Are indemnities too high? 
‘4. Are appraisals too liberal? 
5. Is the follow-up on tested 
herds thorough enough? 
6. Is the State ready for a 
universal plan of area test¬ 
ing in contrast to testing 
selected herds? Or should 
this be optional? 
7. What is the best plan of 
county cooperation? 
A. The Madison County 
plan? 
B. The Tompkins County 
plan? 
C. The Cortland County 
plan? 
8. How may this Committee 
best serve the cattle inter¬ 
ests of New York State? 
The answers, along with 
the advice given by State 
and Federal officials in 
charge of bovine tuber¬ 
culosis eradication, will 
help the Committee to ar¬ 
rive at its final conclusions 
which it expects to submit 
to the State Farm Bureau 
Federation sometime in 
the near future. 
For the benefit of those 
who have not followed the work of this Com¬ 
mittee, I might say it was appointed by 
.^resident Enos Lee of the New York State 
Farm Bureau Federation following the an¬ 
nual meeting of that organization in Syra¬ 
cuse, when a number of resolutions were in¬ 
troduced asking the Federation to go on 
record in favor of appropriations for tuber¬ 
culosis eradication work. 
The Committee is composed of men who 
should be competent to pass judgment on the 
problems concerning bovine tuberculosis 
eradication in a comprehensive and fair 
manner. 
Personnel of the Committee 
L. A. Toan of Perry, N. Y. represents 
the New York State Guernsey Club. Mr. 
Toan is president of the club and is him¬ 
self oner of a fine herd of accredited 
Guernseys. E. R. Zimmer represented the 
New York State Holstein-Friesian Associa¬ 
tion. His death has been a great loss to the 
Committee. His place will pow be filled by 
H. C. Bond, his successor as Secretary of 
the Association. Mr. Bond has had consider¬ 
able practical experience with the control of 
tuberculosis eradication at the Morrisville 
By H. E. BABCOCK 
School of Agriculture and is in a position to 
rapidly establish contact with the Holstein 
breeders of the State. 
M. E. Buckley of the Lincoln School of 
Agriculture iru. Westchester County, N. Y. 
has probably had more experience in hand¬ 
ling reacting cattle and developing healthy 
herds from them than any other man in the 
United States. Mr. Buckley knows cows and 
is a student of tuberculosis. 
Jay Coryell, State Director of Farm 
Bureaus, as Secretary of the Committee, has 
intimate contact with the various county 
farm bureau associations and the county 
agents who are interested in the work. The 
writer, as Chairman, will hope to contribute 
something from his practical experience and 
from his observations of the work generally 
throughout the State. 
What the Committee Has Done 
At its first meeting the Committee did 
something, which few men who talk about 
bovine tuberculosis, have done. For nearly 
a solid day it waded through the various offi¬ 
cial documents, acts of Legislature and Con¬ 
gress, and rules and regulations covering 
the work. 
At its next meeting it had present and 
spent the day in conference with Dr. Kier- 
nan. Federal Veterinarian in charge of tuber¬ 
culosis eradication throughout the United 
States, Dr. Leonard, the Federal Agent 
assigned to New York State, Commissioner 
Pyrke, of the New York State Department 
of Farms and Markets, and Director Mc- 
Laury of the Bureau of Animal Industry. At 
this conference the Committee sought to 
draw out from the State and Federal officials 
their observations and their plans for the 
State. 
The third meeting of the Committee was 
held in Ithaca, on May 1, the one with which 
this article deals, and is the one which Com¬ 
mittee members feel has meant the most to 
them. The meeting was held in Ithaca be¬ 
cause accessible to that city are a number of 
counties in which tuberculosis eradication is 
being pushed in an organized manner. It 
was thought it would be possible to get rep¬ 
resentatives from these counties into Ithaca 
for a meeting. This proved to be the case. 
There were present repre¬ 
sentatives from Onon¬ 
daga, Cortland, Tompkins, 
Steuben, Chenango, 
Broome, Tioga and Mad¬ 
ison counties. In all 
about thirty-five men met 
with the Committee. 
The questions set forth 
in the beginning of this 
article were decided upon 
by the Committee in 
advance of the meeting 
and were presented to the 
conference in order that 
something definite might 
be arrived at and particu¬ 
larly in order that the 
Committee might get light 
on the questions which its 
investigations had con¬ 
vinced the members were 
fundamental. 
On the question of 
eradication of bovine 
tuberculosis, the first one 
put to the conference, 
there was no disagree¬ 
ment. If the men present 
with the Committee fairly 
represent the progressive cattle owners of 
the State, there is no question about how 
they feel concerning the disease. 
The reasons given were; first, the protec¬ 
tion of the public health, particularly that of 
rural people, those living on the farms and 
in small villages who are not protected by 
pasteurization; and second, the preservation 
of the cattle industry, both as an agricultural 
asset of fundamental importance and as a 
safeguard for the future milk supply. 
As might have been expected, those pres¬ 
ent, being breeders or the representatives of 
breeders, were unanimously in favor of the 
continuation of indemnities. It was the 
unanimous opinion that if tuberculosis 
eradication is to succeed, the State must bear 
part of the loss as its contribution to he 
safeguarding of public health. 
Indemnity Limits Not Too High. 
In the discussion of the question of the 
size of indemnities it seemed to be the 
unanimous opinion of those present that the 
indemnity limits as now set by law are not 
too high and that under them it is the owner 
of really high grade cattle who suffers, it not 
(Co7itimi€d on page 439) 
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