The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-08-17
Dangers of the Calf Trade.
Important TO Breeders OF Cattle.

A year ago, when the trade in Eastern
calves sent to the West to be there ma
tured was at its height the Treasury
Cattle Commission succeeded in draw
ing from the Governor of Illinois proc
lamation forbidding the introduction of
cattle from certain localities designated
as infected into that State. They fur
ther secured from the Governor of Iowa
a proclamation warning farmers against
purchasing calves from the infected dis
tricts Up to that time no such calves
had been known to have been sent from
the actually infected districts, but only
from those counties of New York and
Pennsylvania which lie west of the Ale
ghanies, and which have so far kept
free from the lung-plague infection.
During the present summer the supplies
from this belt have fallen off, and the
high prices ruling for young stock SEEM
ed to have given a blow to the trade,
which offered, at least, a temporary pro-
lection to the West. The confidence re-
posed in this mode of protection has,
however, been doomed to a rude de-
struction. Recently calf was shipped
from the infected farm of John A. Conk-
lin, of Long Green. Baltimore County,
to the West, and it was alleged to Chi
cago. Further inquiry drew out the
facts that the calf was not a thorough
bred sent West to improve the herd of
the purchaser, but an ordinary native
and one of lot picked up by a dealer
for the Western market. 1t further
transpires that it had become practice
with dealers to draw upon this danger
Gus market for young cattle to be ma
tured in the West; also, that at the
I,
were frequently bought and sent out
West to mature. In this last case there
was added the reprehensible practice of
having the calves examined by veter-
marian in the stock yards, and shipped
West with a certificate of health. There
was no pretense that the districts nor
herds from which they had been drawn
had been examined and proved sound,
nor that the stock-yards in which they
had been selected had been kept free
from all infection. On the contrary, it
is a>common occurrence in the Camden
stock-yards to have cattle seized as be-
ing affected with the lung plague and
given over to immediate slaughter.
Yet these calves, drawn from any local
ity or herd, healthy or diseased, and
mingling with and succeeding in the
and at times proved to be actually dis
eased, are sent out with guarantee of
| health! A certificate of health when
leaving place where thousands of ami
mails from all sources, sound and I'M
sound, congregate, and where this dis
ease against which this is q guarantee
may lurk for months in the system I'M
suspected and undetectible by the ablest
| professional man! Could any trap be
more cunningly baited? Could any
course be better calculated to secure the
| spread of the infection in the West?
| The trusting purchaser is entirely
thrown off his guard by the professional
certificate, and turns his new purchase
into his valuable home herd, or on his
unfenced range, where weeks must still
elapse before the infection caught in
the Eastern stock-yard can show itself
in active disease. Weeks, months, and
perhaps years moro may pass before the
true nature of that disease is ascertain
ed. Meanwhile, the poison is spreading
slowly and insidiously, but none the less
surely; and if it has not been already
accomplished, we are daily approaching
nearer and nearer to the irremediable
infection of our vast grazing lands. The
system is u most perniciOus one. and
ought not to be tolerated for a single
moment. No guarantee of freedom
from lung plague can be granted on the
basis of one examination of animals in
transit, much less of an examination in
a stock-yard where lung plague is occa-
| SOnally detected. Such examinations
are but delusions, and such certificates
are but snares to entangle the unwary
| and confiding.
The facts as above detailed seem to
| imply the existence of the same prac-.
tice in other infected districts. The
shipment of calves from the infected
markets of Camden and Baltimore, sug-
gest at least similar shipments from
| Georgetown, Philadelphia, Jersey City
and New York. Under these circum-
stances how long can the boasted i'm
munity of the West be hoped to con-
tinue? Never before in the history of
the nation has the danger been so i'm
minent. For over thirty years we We're
protected by the conveyance OF the
whole continental cattle traffic to the
infected center. Three years ago a
counter current set in in the case OF
calves sent from middle and western
PENNSYLVANIA and New York, to be ma
tured in the West. Now, on account OF
the exorbitant prices given for stock in
this belt, the caterers for the western
market have been crowded further east,
and now, for the first time, the infected
districts are being extensively laid I'M
der contribution to supply the demands
of the West.
The bill that passed the House OF
Representatives in June provides for the
punishment of men who shall knO1OG77g-
ly send infected cattle out of an infected
; State. The urgency of this new danger
demands more than this. In this case
infected cattle were sent out of the State
under the conduct of certificate o.
soxnd2aesS, and neither the carrying
company, the shipper, or consignee, car
under this law be convicted, which fac
shows conclusively the imperative ne
cessity for a prohibition of all cattl'
traffic out of an infected State or dis
trict.
, The interests of the stock raisers o
( the South and West require prompt ant
+ VIGOROUS measures for the restriction O
| this pestilence and unless they prompt.
rise to the needs of the occasion tn
5 plague will work untold damage West
l ern and Southern Representatives mus
be urged to accomplish this work at tn
earliest possible moment.
Texas breeders have bitterly com
y planned of the attempt to limit the north
ward movement of Texan cattle to th
e safe months of winter. But whatwoul
' the Texas cattle interests not suffer
i they once allowed the entrance into thei
e herds of plague against which winte
Y offers no safeguard and which summe
will only intensity; plague which wi
d not contine its fatality to strange cattl
: with which the Texans come in contac
u but will devastate the fair fields of Te,
il as itself, as the Gulf coastfever now d.
p stroys the imported cattle of the Nortl
g n plague, in word, which will dee
: mate the herds in Texas, will clog I'll
/. Texan cattle trade in winter more tina
IS il is now hindered in summer; whic
), will poison the American cattle trade
). its source, and ruin our foreign marke
), and which, finally, will last on our Ill
II fenced ranges SO long as they are pas
5 Ured bV cattle?