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AGRICULTURE

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the circumstance that so few countries—none of them in Eur0pe—enjoy the privilege of sending live animals to British ports. So recently as 1900, the discovery early in that year of the existence of foot-and-mouth disease amongst cattle and sheep shipped from Argentina to the United Kingdom led to the issue of an order, by which all British ports were closed against live animals from the country named. This order came into force on 30th April, and was still in operation a year later, with the result that there was a marked decline in the shipments of live cattle and sheep from the River Plate, but a decided increase in the quantity of frozen meat sent thence to the United Kingdom. The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed an important change in the attitude of public opinion towards legislative control over the contagious diseases of animals. When, after the introduction of cattle plague or rinderpest in 1865, the proposal was made to resort to the extreme remedy of slaughter in order to check the ravages of a disease which was pursuing its course with ruinous results, the idea was received with public indignation and denounced as barbarous. Views have undergone profound modification since then, and the most drastic remedy has come to be regarded as the most effective, and in the long run the least costly. The Cattle Diseases Prevention Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Viet. c. 2), made compulsory the slaughter of diseased cattle, and permitted the slaughter of cattle which had been exposed to infection, compensation being provided out of the rates. The Act 30 & 31 Viet. c. 125, 1867, is of historical interest, in that it contains the first mention of pleuro-pneumonia, and the exposure in any market of cattle suffering from that disease was made an offence. The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Viet. c. 70), revoked all former Acts, and defined disease to mean cattle plague, pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, sheeppox, sheep-scab, and glanders, together with any disease which the Privy Council might by order specify. The The Maintenance of the Health of Live Stock. It was not till the closing decade of the 19th century principle of this Act in regard to foreign animals was, that the stock-breeders of the United Kingdom found that of free importation, with power for the Privy Council themselves in a position to prosecute their industry free to prohibit or subject to quarantine and slaughter, as cirfrom the fear of the introduction of contagious disease cumstances seemed to require. The Act of 1869 was at through the medium of store animals imported from abroad that time the most complete measure that had ever been for fattening on the native pastures. By the Diseases of passed for dealing with diseases of animals. The re-introAnimals Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Viet. c. 15), it was provided duction of cattle plague into England in 1877 led to the that cattle, sheep, and pigs imported into the United passing of the Act 41 & 42 Viet. c. 74, 1878, which Kingdom should be slaughtered at the place of landing. repealed the Act of 1869, and affirmed as a principle the The effect was to reduce to a minimum the risk of the landing of foreign animals for slaughter only, though free introduction of disease amongst the herds and flocks of importation or quarantine on the one hand and prohibition the country, and at the same time to confine the trade in on the other were provided for in exceptional circumstore stock exclusively to the breeders of Great Britain stances. By an Order of Council which came into operaand Ireland. This arrangement makes no difference to tion in December 1878, swine fever was declared to be a the food-supply of the people, for dead meat continues to disease for the purposes of the Act of that year. It was arrive at British ports in ever-increasing quantity. More- not, however, till October 1886 that anthrax and rabies over, live animals are admitted freely from certain were officially declared to be contagious diseases for the countries, provided such animals are slaughtered at the purposes of certain sections of the Act of 1878. In 1884 place of landing. At Deptford, for example, large the Act 47 & 48 Viet. c. 13 empowered the Privy Council numbers of cattle and sheep which thus arrive—mainly to prohibit the landing of animals from any country in from Argentina, Canada, and the United States—are at respect of which the circumstances were not such as to once slaughtered, and so furnish a steady supply of fresh- afford reasonable security against the introduction of footkilled beef and mutton. The animals which are shipped and-mouth disease. After one or two other measures of in this way are necessarily of the best quality, because the minor importance came the Act 53 & 54 Viet. c. 14, freight on a superior beast is no more costly than on an known as the Pleuro-pneumonia Act of 1890, which transinferior one, and the proportion of freight to sale price is ferred the powers of local authorities to slaughter and pay therefore less. With this superior description of butchers’ compensation in cases of pleuro-pneumonia to the Board stock all classes of home-grown stock—good, bad, and of Agriculture, and provided further for the payment of indifferent—have, of course, to compete. The Board of such compensation out of money specifically voted by ParAgriculture has the power to close the ports of the United liament. This measure was regarded at the time as a Kingdom against live animals from any country in which marked step in advance, and was only carried after a contagious disease is known to exist. This accounts for vigorous campaign in its favour. In 1892, by the Act

In the case of sheep the National Sheep Breeders’ Association looks after the interests of flockmasters in general, whilst most of the pure breeds are represented also by separate organizations. The Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders’ Association may be taken as a type of the latter, its principal object being to encourage the breeding of Hampshire Down sheep at home and abroad, and to maintain the purity of the breed. It publishes an annual Flock Book, the first volume of which appeared in 1890. In this book are named the recognized and purebred sires which have been used, and ewes which have been bred from, whilst there are also registered the pedigrees of such sheep as are proved to be eligible for entry. Prizes are offered by the society at various agricultural shows where Hampshire Down sheep are exhibited. Other sheep societies include the Leicester Sheep Breeders’ Association, the Cotswold Sheep Society, the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeders’ Association, the Oxford Down Sheep Breeders’ Association, the Shropshire Sheep Breeders’ Association and Flock Book Society, the Southdown Sheep Society, the Suffolk Sheep Society, the Border Leicester Sheep Breeders’ Society, the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders’ Association and Flock Book Society, the Incorporated Wensleydale Blue-faced Sheep Breeders’ Association and Flock Book Society, the Kent Sheep Breeders’ Association, the Devon Longwool Sheep Breeders’ Society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders’ Association, the Cheviot Sheep Society, and the Roscommon Sheep Breeders’ Association. . . The interests of pig breeders are the care of the National Pig Breeders’ Association, in addition to which there exist the British Berkshire Society and the Large Black Pig Society. The addresses of the secretaries of the various live-stock societies in the United Kingdom are published annually in the Live Stock Journal Almanac.