Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-22

City and County.
THE YEARS WORK.
BY Names Cattle Commissioners Their Call
- Fer Increased Funds.


our commission in 1894 will be found To
be 201, as opposed to 143 in 1898, an ex
cess of So cases Nincty-two herds Of
cattle were inspected, while the number
of stables of horses examined fol. CHAMBERS
and farcy was 108, which exceeded the
number of last year by 46, and there is an
apparent cause for these latter inspections
which will be given later in the report.
Forty six head of cattle were con
demned and destroyed at an appraisal of
81 ,4s5. 90 the total amount of appraisals
for the year being S4178.
Our quarantine against Massachusetts,
is still in force, and the recent public and
: private developments In that state under
the workings of their new law will render
it entirely unnecessary for us to give any
new or further reasons for its continu-
ance, the percentage of diseased cattle in
that state, given through our Maine re-
ports for the past five years being no
longer denied either publicly or officially,
the cold facts being daily developed ali
going to- show the percentage estimated
by us will be largely increased rather than
diminished. Gs
The report treats at considerable length
the condition of affairs as regards tuber-
the need Of maintaining our quarantine
the commissioners site the final inspection
and disposal last June of the Jersey herd
at ..Mountain View Farm South Paris,
where they condemned and paid for six
cows, making in all fifteen head paid for
by the state out of n herd of twenty ami
mails that had come to us out of one of the
largest, and supposed to be soundcst herds
in Massachusetts,.
As regards salary the commissioners
after referring to the large sums which
Massachusetts, is paying it's commission
says: 'Twentyfivc hundred dollars a
year is the annual appropriation of
Maine and out Of that sum there is OK
pected to be paid all the expenses and
salary (?) of three commissioners and for
all horses and cattle condemned and de-
stroycd under the provisions of our law.
Two years ago when we made our ben-
NAL report deficiency existed of nearly
the amount of the appropriation which
was made good by the Legislature but in
stead of increasing the appropriation we
then asked for (and which the board of
agriculture unanimously recommended)
the appraisal of all horses and cattle
which have since been destroyed was cut
down one-half thus paying onc-quarter of
their value upon'the basis Of health before
infection instead of one half as before that
time No member of our board was con
suited upon the wisdom or advisability of
that amendment and we now entertain
the same opinion we did then that it was
false economy, and we then said: 'We be
licve this enactment to have been false
economy and n mistake, us aside of its not
being fair business proposition towards
those who are SO unfortunate as to possess
diseased animals we are of opinion
that it retards and disables the work of
our commission and reduces our law too
near the level of the law of Massachusetts,
which provides no indemnity whatever
to owners whose deceased animals are con
dcmncd and destroyed by order Of their
cattle commissioners.
"Anot her deficiency of S2500 now exists
as it did two years ago and the hardship
of it is that the money has been due all
parties for whom we have killed IA horse
or other animal since last April, many of
them needing the money to replace the
animals thus condemned so it results that
for the last four months of the first bien-
NAL year and the last eight months of the
second year our board was entirely out
of funds and an appeal to the Governor
and council resulted in their authorizing
our board to do just what was absolutely
necessary and no more to carry on the
work until the present Legislature con
vcncd.
1.-The largely increased number of in
spcctions made during 1894, over any pre-
yious year plainly show that the demands
upon us arr increasing, and we feel that
much sanitary work is left undone that
should receive more attention from the
cattle commission than the present law
and appropriation adequately provide for.
The proper disinfecton and care of
premises, out of which diseased animals
have been taken should be under state
control instead of being left to owners
who generally undcrrate the importance
of the work, or neglect altogether to give
il their attention. ,'.
Several cases have come to our know
ledge the past year where repeated cases
have been found in stables, out of which
some horse had been condemned and
where such horses after being inhumaniy
killed have been left above ground for iox
bait or dogs to devour, and thus scatter
the disease broad cast all over the state
''Thero is another feature of our over
sight Of dairy herds that has been hereto
fore overlooked or underrated In allowing
cons,nnptive, people to act as attendants
upon mitch herds. The recent reports OK
the Johns Hopkins hospital prove that
the cxpectoration of a single consumptive
patient was about four ounces in twenty
four hours, and that it contained more
than four thousand million of baciiil IN
single day The proper disinfection oil
berculous sputum would seem out OF the
question in barns and stables where
,hthisical persons have the charge OF
feeding aud milking dairy animals ana
it should be remembered that the germs
exist in all discharges from tubercniar
foci and are constantly accumulatlng
from vast storehouses of dust in which
the bacillus retains its vitality for years
only to reproduce the disease in the future
occupants of the same stable.
The commissioners say that II Maine Is
to keep abreast of the times some pro
Vision must be made for the use of tuber-
oulin although they do not think its gen
eral adoption will be necessary IN TINS