The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-03-20
Testing the Herds.

The board of agriculture, represented
by Messrs. Vail and Spear, are pur-
suing their labors under the tuber-
culosis act of the recent session of the
legislature. They examined the herd
of E. l.. Bass in Randolph week ago.
Three out of nine teen were condemned
and killed, and all were found to have
tuberculosis, The cows were appraised
at $50 each. Mr.. Bass expresses his
approval of the work of the board in it's
capacity of cattle commissioners and
was thankful for half the appraised
value of his animals. That's the right
spirit. We are told that G. M. WINS
low of Brandon, secretary of the board,
has had six of his herd examined. Two
of the six were doomed and were
shown by the examination to be tuber-
culous.
A despatch in the Free Press has it
that the commissioners are shaving
many applications from the farmers,
but can go only where there is GER
tainty of the disease, as their time is
limited" This statement of the case
suggests several things. The farmers
appear to be away ahead of their rep
resentatives who timorously made the
law under hich the commissioners are
now proceeding. tuberculosis, in the
matter of its existence among the cat.
tie of the state, is 30 far shown to be,
not a scare, but a very tangible fact.
There has been evidence enough Of
this for some two or three years at
least. What is peculiar in the infor-
nation conveyed in the report referred
to is that the commissioners can go
"only where there is Ger ainty of the
disease, as their time is limited" We
trust this is not official 1t is needless
to 60, or to spend much time, "where
there is certainty of the disease"
The course to pursue in such cases
should be very simple and action
speedy. If farmer suspects the ex-
istence of the disease among his cat
tie, or whether he suspects or not but
wants to know to certainty if his herd
is sound in health-for the disease is
often found where it is least expected,
the commissioners ought to give I'M
limited time to such requests, even if
they have to forego few farmers
meetings in order to meet the demand
in the matter of time and per diem.
Work under the act for suppressing tu
berculosis should be the one first
business of til, board. tits the matter
of prime Importance in respect both of
the farmers best interest and the pub
lie health.
The attitude of the farmers toward
the tuberculosis act is surprise to
few-agricultural or otherwise-papers
of the state which have seemed to have
an eye to the maintaining of subscrip-
ton list by catering to the supposed
prejudice of the farmers against any
means of ascertaining the facts of the
existence of tuberculosis among their
cattle, rather than to the real interest of
the farmers in this matter and to con-
siderations affecting the public health.
The farmers are taking the right view
of this matter. They want to know the
real facts about their cattle. If tuber-
culosis has gained a foothod in their
herds, they want to arrest the disease
and stay the destruction of their prop
erty before the contagion has passed to
every animal they own. On the lowest
material grounds, they are wise and
prudent in asking for an examination
Of their cattle. They have right to
an examination, and the cattle commits
sioners should find time to answer their
calls, and we believe they will.