Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-01-09
Cause of Cattle Diseases.

We are not in favor oil young Duils oI
young heifers for breeding purposes, and
we believe the perniciOus practice OF
using them has led to deterioration OF
our common dairy stock and the engen-
dering of numerous diseases, including
abortion. The same thing is noted IN
England, as will be seen by the follow
ing from a correspondent OF the MARX
Lane Express, Mr.. Frederick King
And now what must / say as one OF
the oldest members of the Royal Agrl-
cultural Society? Shall it devolYe upon
me to tell the public, through your col
umns, that which neither our society, the
Privv Council nor all the veterinary art
has Yentured to tell you, viz, the cause
of the prevalent cattle diseases? These
are all ready to tell you the fearful eX-
tent to which the disease exists instance
one small county, Oxford in which
we have, by a recent weekly return,
some 1900 beasts, 5000 sheep and over
300 pigs affected with foot and mouth
disease and not one of these mighty and
influential powers dare venture to tell
the cause. Let me, therefore, say that
''the Royal" l fear, has not sufficient
Hfe-pO1oer for the emergency while the
Privy Council naturally bows to political
pressure and the third fear that the ec-
pose will too soon be out. Having had
fifty years experience, great portion OF
which was in the management of a
nObleman's extensive estates, and being
now largely engaged in agricultural mat
tiers in all parts of the kingdom, and hav-
ing a full knowledge of a rapid decrease
in our f1ocks and herds, may yet men
ton that / know not where to purchase
calves (same in some of our high-priced,
pure bred herds) that are not the off
spring of parents in condition OF incl
pient disease and how can the offspring
of diseased parents be healthy? Is not
this, therefore. a serious national ques-
ton and would not the attention OF all
the better be directed to a clean bill Of
health in our own flOcks and herds rather
than in complainingOf our foreign neigh
bors, whose cattle are much healthier
than ours ? Such complaints simply
raise obstacles to a free supply being fur
nished to US, and naturally increase the
price of our food at home. Let me,
therefore, assert mot Extensively, l hOpe)
that the present generation both Of
butchers and consumers have never seen
beef or mutton in perfection. Where
are now to be found those splendid five
and six-year old bullocks and falmouth
ed wether sheep that one was wont to
see fifty years ago, moving masses, as 1t
were, of full-fiavOred, fine-grained meat.
rich in nutritiOn-animals that had lived
first to mature the structural system,
then completing a fully-foImed musCu-
lar development, charging the muscles
with that property which induces health
for proper prOcreatiOn of the various
Species or which gives nOurishment 10
our meat foods This class Of animals
is practically extinct, and in lieu thereof,
what have we? To-day we are eating
beef purchased, perhaps, even at the
best West-end shops bred from sickly
mothers under two years old, that them
selves never paTtOok Of the nOurishment
nature had provided for them in early
calfhOod weak, therefore, themselves,
for mother purposes, and this weakly
offspring prematurely fattened and kill
ed before either the structural or the
muscular formation was perfected TO say
nothing of the latter becoming charged
with the highly nutritiye properties
which. meat yielded in years gone by:
and then can it be wondered at, that
after we have neglected and abused all
the natural laws and have bred a sicklv
race, that they readily fall victims to
rhinderpest, pleuro-pneumOnia, and foot
and mouth disease? Ought we not to
feel ashamed of our inhumanity. and
say that the cause of all these diseases is /
attributable to our own indiscretiOn?
Take. again, our muttOn-the lambs. as
it were, of yesterday Is it not true we
are eating mutton born in January and
February of the present year, therefore
now only nine or ten months old, with
neither structural, muscular, or nutritive
development completed Nor does this .
ill the catalogue of our gross misman- /
agement; for look at the parentage Of .
this miscalled mutton Why. in the /
month of October (or, what is worse, as !
early as September our breeding ewes /
have associated with the males Of the /.
first year, only eight or nine months old. +.
which have never completed their struc- +
tural, muscular or nutritive powers +
Hence, / say. we study to produce a T
weakly, sickly and degenerate race of /
both cattle and sheep. in which we have .
admirably succeeded, and then attribute .
the causes, which are now so heavily .
complained of, to causes over which we /
have no control. Away, | say. with /
such false premises, and rather let US ask /
if these calamities are not among Gods .
most righteous judgments.