work, who can be obtained for a song, while they pocket the government allowance. If they have so many irons in the fire at the commencement, there is no need to place another in their hands which is first allowed to burn. The public welfare is important, and should not be left to boys and other careless and inexperienced persons.

A great deal of good might be done in the way of eradicating pleuro-pneumonia by the establishment of local quarantine and inspection, conducted under the auspices of farmers' clubs and agricultural societies. Cattle, etc., sent to certain markets might be admitted only on the strength of a certificate of health from the resident inspector. The system, however, is most likely to fail, on account of outside carelessness, unless the greatest amount of caution is exercised in fresh purchases and the admission of traveling cattle through the district. In Aberdeenshire the system has been of great service.

The cleansing of railway trucks and sidings should be regularly enforced under the supervision of an inspector, who attaches a ticket, certifying his examination after each operation; the ticket to be retained by the inspector who receives the cattle at their destination. Hay and water are necessary on all long journeys, which should be scrupulously attended to.

To eradicate pleuro-pneumonia epizoötica or other contagious diseases from this country, measures which regulate the home trade should act in strict conformity with those which preside over the foreign traffic. While the former ministers toward placing a limit around the point at which contagion appears by which its force and effects would be paralyzed, the other would effectually, at least in a majority of instances, seal the country against the further admission of disease in a more active state.

While ports are open and inspection is no better carried out than at present, thousands of pounds may be uselessly squandered in livery and red tape, inspectors and licenses, and at the end of ten or twenty years the country will be as bad as at the present time. The first aim is to deal stringently with importation, to guard against further admission of disease; next organize the surveillance over internal traffic properly, moving animals only (as much as possible on the voluntary system), armed with a certificate of health. The whole, by a little thought, may be made to work profitably, and maintained at little cost and inconvenience.

Inoculation as a preventive of Pleuro-pneumonia Epizootica.The system of inoculation as a preventive of pleuro-pneumonia

epizootica, although in a few instances successful terminations have marked the proceeding, in the main is not a wise one. Το inoculate animals as a means of reducing contagious diseases is in reality to increase their prevalence. While the disease is being communicated artificially to each animal, fresh seeds are being constantly manufactured. It is, therefore, diametrically opposed to eradication, and should not be pursued. If isolation, and care in the traffic of animals in the home and fereign trades, will not stamp out pleuro-pneumonia and all other contagious diseases of cattle at the same time, no other system, neither those of medical treatment nor inoculation, can offer the least service. Security lies only in preventing the admission and spread of disease, not in treating it medically, or dabbling in such experiments which propagate it over a greater area, under a mistaken idea that the results are valuable additions to science.

Some of the metropolitan dairymen recently informed the writer that they are constantly in the habit of resorting to inoculation, and derive very satisfactory results. From a due consideration of all the circumstances, it appears that, so long as inoculation is practiced among the cattle by the use of virus obtained from those dying in the neighborhood, and no diseased cattle are purchased from abroad, there appears to take place a decline in the severity of the disease from time to time. The symptoms are mild in character, and few deaths really occur either from the operation or among those which recover and are subjected to subsequent contagion.* But one sad result is inevitable, and that is, when fresh introduction of cattle from Holland or Ireland takes place, among whom pleuro-pneumonia epizootica is prevailing, the disease makes alarming progress.

If we could inoculate all the cattle in Britain at once, and resolve to import no more from abroad, pleuro-pneumonia might disappear; but, as it is, inoculation of cattle and unrestricted movement only propagate the disease, and render it a decided impossibility to free the land of its presence.

District inspection of Cow-houses (Byres), &c.—One of the most prolific sources of pleuro-pneumonia and other contagious diseases among cattle are the cow-houses of our large towns and cities. The causes of its propagation lie in the free and almost uninterrupted manner in which the owners can dispose of their diseased stock,

* In many instances cattle, after inoculation, do not show any symptoms or suffer any inconvenience from the operation. It is not too much to assert that numbers have already gone through the mild stages before landing in England; hence the apparently favorable results of inoculation In the metropolitan dairies. In the writer's experience, there is nothing to encourage the adoption of the operation as a means of eradicating pleuro-pneumonia epizootica.

Our medical officers of health, or the policemen who are deputed, really perform but a portion of the necessary good when they visit the cow-sheds in their district. They may enforce the prescribed cubical area for each animal, if they are able to measure it, and also enjoin strict orders of cleanliness; yet, notwithstanding this, the owners may send away apparently healthy cattle, and propagate by them disease in its worst character.

This is a point which requires a special mode of dealing. Until inspectors are chosen for their well-known capabilities of detecting disease, and they are allowed to enter every cow-house in their respective districts, note the number of inmates, and demand the cause of removal of each, as well as its destination; until this is done collaterally with an improved careful system of importation and regulation of the traffic among our home stock, owners of cattle cannot reasonably hope for success in any other measure aimed at the eradication of pleuro-pneumonia epizoötica from Great Britain.

ON THE MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY.*

BY ROBERT HUTCHISON, OF CARLOWRIE, KIRKLISTON.

The most superficial observer of agricultural affairs in Scotland cannot fail to be struck with the small and constantly decreasing number of poultry to be seen about our farm-steadings generally; and yet this diminution in the stock formerly kept, does not arise from any corresponding depression in the demand for either eggs or dead poultry. On the contrary, the demand for fowls and their produce, as a food supply for the people, is large and steadily increasing, and the prices paid for good birds (dead or alive) are frequently so high as to induce our continental neighbors to forward large quan-tities of poultry of all descriptions and qualities to supply our markets. In 1867, besides the large number of eggs brought from Ireland, there were imported from abroad, according to the Board of Trade returns, 438,878,880; a large number, certainly, and representing, in money value, no less than £1,105,653 sterling. This item of our imports shows an increase of fully 400 per cent during the last ten years. The returns of the Board of Trade have not noticed the importation of fowls for some years past; but we have very good data for calculating that their present annual import value exceeds £100,000, thus making a total of £1,205,653 paid by Great Britain to foreign countries (exclusive of a large sum to Ireland) for poultry and eggs annually. And why should this be so? Are our home breeders of poultry so negligent of their own interests as to allow this large amount year by year to go past them wittingly, or do the expenses of rearing and feeding in this country not afford a margin to compete successfully and profitably with the foreigners in our own home markets? Taking into account the statistics we have given, and bearing in mind the far higher prices given for our own "home-laid" eggs, on account of their superiority of flavor and freshness, not to speak of a certain prejudice in their favor, from the knowledge of the clean and whole

* From the transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.