The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-11 00:00:00

SCIENTIFIC AND ORNAMENTAL PRESENTS.

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The Cattle Plague.

HUNTINGDON,

The cattle plagae has assumed such an alarming
aspect in this county that the county magistracy are
completely at a loss as to the best course to pursue
with a view to its stoppage. The agriculturists are
anxious to get their uninfected cattle out of the
county as quickly as possible, but the Quarter Ses-
sions interdict prohibits this course without the sanc-
tion of the petty sessional bench of the district,
combined with a certificate from the appointed vete-
rinary district inspector, certifying that the animals
proposed to be removed are perfectly free from the
disease. When the beasts are healthy and free from
the disease the certificate of the inspector is easily
obtained, but not so the order from the petty ses-
sional bench. Farmers have waited upon the vari-
ous benches, and urged strong cases to obtain the
sanction for removal. One of their arguments is
this—Supposing a farmer had a herd of, say, 20
cattle on his farm ; one might die, yet the other 19
remain, for a time, perfectly healthy. Now, unless
the magistrates give an order to sanction the re-
moval of these 19 beasts, they must be kept on the
farm to die, and the magistrates would be morally
responsible for their loss, because if the magistrates
had sanctioned the removal of these 19 healthy ani-
mals (as certified by the veterinary inspector) they
would have been removed"to London or some other
market and slaughtered. This is one of the argu-
ments of the farmers of this county, as there are a
great many who have no symptoms of the disease
on their farms nor ever had, and who would send
off their beasts to market before their farms were
affected, thereby lessening the number of animals
in this county and consequently stopping the pro-
gress of the disease to a certain extent, as there
would be fewer beasts to be attacked. The disease
is pretty well understood by this time to be both
epidemic and contagious. More people, however,
contend for the contagious nature of the disease
than the epidemic. As an instance of the latter,
at a place called Bluntisham, about eight or
nine miles from Huntingdon, the disease broke
out on five farms in a single night. Those
were isolated farms, and every necessary precaution
had been taken to disinfect the premises previous to
the breaking out of the disease. On one farm in the
same neighbourhood 18 fat beasts died and were
buried in the short space of five days. Disinfectants
are plentifully used. On many farms the men's
shoes, the horses' feet, and the cartwheels are washed
previous to entering the stock-yard. Numbers of
farmers applied to the magistrates during the early
part of the week for permission to remove their un-
infected stock, but the magistrates declined to give
any decision. This may arise, perhaps, from the
fact that the adjourned Quarter Sessions will be held
on Saturday, and they would like to have the opinion
of the whole court on the matter.