The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-05-16
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers operate This
Department of the Farm A Few
Hints AS to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.
sensible Use of rubprculin.

Sensible Use of TubercuIin.
1t is to be hoped that when a new
state veterinarian is appointed in Illi-
nois he will be a fully graduated prac-
titioner and a man who has at heart
the best interests of the stock owners
of the country. Owners of dairy and
breeding cows in this state have been
up in arms for a long time past as a
result of the way III which the tuber-
culin crusade has been carried out
against tuberculosis. They have seen
their animals tested and condemned
and have received only 4 small amount
Of the real value of such cattle killed
for the alleged benefit of the people
of the state at large. They have ar
gued with a good deal of reason that
if the cattle must be killed appar-
emily healthy, well-doing cows, show
ing no emaciation and no trouble Of
the udder, should be condemned and
killed for the sole eason that they
showed a rise in temperature when
tuberculin was injected. They have
rebelled all the more when they fol-
lowed these COWS to the shambles and
found that the alleged evidence OF
tuberculosis was some small spot the
size of a bean or altogether absent SO
far as they could see. They have con-
sidered it unfair to attribute the rise
in each case to the effect of the tuber-
culin injected when they have known
that the COW fretted under the test,
was sometimes in heat or near preg-
nancy when tested or unaccustomed
to stay in a barn without water in hot
weather when grass had been the food
prior to the test and shady places the
resting place of the victim during hot
days. 1t is alleged by the state veteri-
marian that during the past year no
COWS have been tested without the
owner having first asked that the cows
be so treated. We doubt this asser-
ton when we remember that agents OF
the state authorities, accompanied by
police officers, visited ignorant owners
of COWS and asked CD them to sign
papers requesting that their COWS be
tested by the state officials! This was
voluntary asking in a vengeance! The
parties have since told the writer that
they were of the opinion that they had
to have the cattle tested and had no
voice in the matter. The Farmers Re-
view is not opposed to fair means OF
attempting the eradication of danger
Gus cases of tuberculosis, but it is OPP
posed to wholesale destruction of other
peoples cows for the alleged benefit
Of the public at large without due re-
endorsement of the owner of cattle
ordered slaughtered. 1t is opposed to
such tests being carried out by ignor-
ant, uneducated men who do not give
the apparently healthy cow the benefit
of the doubt when she is in heat, nerv-
GUS, pregnant or unaccustomed tc
stabling during the test. 1t is op-
posed to the condemning to death Of
all COWS reacting to the test when
there is no sign of emaciation, nc sign
of the udder being involved, no sigr
of anything being the matter with the
: cow. 1t is opposed to the methods o.
: Icoersion in obtaining the consent o.
Owners to having their cattle tested.
We believe that every COW tina
shows suspicious symptoms of tubercu
aosis should be tested, and that sucf
symptoms should be discovered BY
veterinary inspectors, whose duty i
should be to inspect dairy herds under
the supervision of local boards O.
health. We believe that all ~reactins
COWS should be watched and retested
but not slaughtered at once after re
acting, and proper hygienic measures
should be taken in every herd to iso
late all COWS that have reacted, ant
that such COWS should be put out of III
milk supply business and be fattenet
for sale and slaughtered under ex
pert inspection. We are of the opin
ion further that the whole business
should be conducted upon a common
sense basis, rather than fanaticall!
and wastefully, and that every pre-
caution should be taken to make eacl
test with tuberculin fair to all con
cerned.
I Dairy Notes.
/ The live stock census in Iowa show