Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-28

MH2M W. head Of cattle and
U other animals have
been stranded In diff
fereut parts OF the
country on their way to the executioner.
When herds OF stock are packed closely to-
getner In box cars. and confined for weeks
without proper food and clean apartments.
disease generally breaks out among them
which will be detected by the government
inspectors. The strict laws governing the
interference with government tagging will
prevent the detachment of these lew dan
ger signals. for which the meat dealer will
always be on the lookout. Before, the alb
sence of tag was not easily noticed. eth
er by the careless employe who shipped the
meat away. or by the purchaser.
At the various stock yards the govern
ment inspectors, continually on the alert
for finding bad meat are indeed the best
friends of the public and the Iife-savers of
the epicure, especially since the railroads
have centralized the packing systems in
different parts of the country, which supply
the greater part of the meat markets of the
cities. Now that the system in use by the
government has undergone SO much i'm
proVement. the careful housewife, il is
claimed, may as safely purchase her steaks
ana joints from the west as from the neigh
boring farmer whose cattle are not Official
~ inspected. The Agricultural Depart
ments bureau of animal industries, which
has charge of all meat inspection, Is but a
decade old. Previous to 1884 the depart
ment, then under commissioner, had only
a veterinary division, while the only dis
ease-detecting branch of the government
was commission of veterinary surgeons
who were investigating hog cholera. But
after ten years of earnest effort on the part
OF Dr. Salmon, the veterinarian who brought
the bureau out. ii has been developed from
its embryonic form TO its present wide scope.
The hrst move onward will be TO bring
all slaughter houses in the country which
do interstate trade under regular inspec-
ton. The next step will be to give special
attention to the dairy and poultry indus
tries OF the country. The condition of the
former. since the fruits of the great tu-
Derculosis studies have come 20 light has
created much anxiety among radical men,
who are now inclined to believe that more
than half Of the cases of consumption in
the land Is caused by the tuberculosis bacil-
ius IN milk alone. Since boiling is the only
means of destroying the germs, thus max
ing milk uhpalatabIe. the ounce of pre-
NehtlVe system must be employed The
present scope OF the bureau extends active
Iy only over cattle, sheep and hogs after
they have entered the stock Yards. and
only then when they are to be thrown into
the interstate market. To get at the sn,
pure milk evil the farmers and dairies
which transport milk over state boundaries
must be attended to under the SUPERVISION
OF government inspectors. Thus precau-
tons against disease will extend into the
house.
Milk and Poultry.
The dairy system OF Denmark is consid-
cred the best in the world, and a thorough
investigation Of this furnished the subject
OF the last special bulletin issued by the
department to the prominent stock raisers
of the country. The poultry business. bv
means OF the rapid improvement in cold
storage cars. has become SO extensive in
a
ton by official inspectors. The distribution
or disease by unhealthy poultry meat and
eggs is becoming sufficiently serious to re-
quire an extension of this system II has
been pointed out that the proper breeding
OF chickens and other fowl used for food
should also be regulated scientifically. and
bulletins should be issued to the raisers in
structing them in the best means of mating
for special purposes. as. for example highly
feathered fowls should be bred for that
characteristic alone. good layers should be
mated with others of the same faculty and
meat-pro1ncing fowl should be raised for
the cuisine only. There is said to be more
Wasteful interbreeding among chickens
than any other members of the animal
lingiom.
The stock inspectors and their assistants
scattered abroad in the country have only
to see that the regulations of the bureau in
this city are carried out. These agents are
TO be found in the field stations Of New
York city, Chicago, Kansas City. Nebraska
City, Omaha, Sioux City, Milwaukee,. HAM
mond, Ind. Indianapolis, Cleveland. Buff
faio, Boston, Jersey City and Philadelphia.
In Chicago alone the bureau has one hun
dred and fifty representatives. Although
these active field agents are required to be
men of veterinary skill or experienced stock
raisers. they have none of the actual inves-
tigation to perform. The laboratory of the
animal industry bureau is almost eXten-
sive as the other divisions of the Agricul-
tural Department combined. 1t is the
greatest institution of its kind in the world.
being conducted under a faculty of special
lists. most of whom have been educated
abroad. The laboratory is divided into two
sections, one treating of animal bacteriol-
ogy. the other of animal parasites. Out
side of these, the government experiment
station Benuing road is used a hos
pital morgue, dissecting room and under
taking establishment for the larger beasts.
which can't be taken up the department
staircase.
A Tuberculosis bulletin.
In the department of the laboratory de-
voted to bacillary diseases. Dr. Theobald
Smith Is making an extended study of tu-
berculosis, or consumption, and il is just
now completing a lengthy bulletin for Sec
rotary Morton, which will soon be in Cir
culation among five thousand of the most
extensive stock raiserS throughout the coun-
try 1t is in this place that the many
threads set fiylrg at the discovery of Koch's
lymph have been taken mp and woven into
the great discoveries which not only will,
in time lid us of consumptive cattle but
il is believed deliver the human race from
that disease. II is estimated that one-sev-
enth of the deaths in the world are caused
by this germ. DIR. Smith is daily engaged in
breeding germs of consumption. watching
their every move and recording his discov-
cries in reports which will be classei among
the first observations on the subject The
bacillary germs. being of a vegetable order
smaller ard less conspicuous than the