Its records of the year show that the season
of 1888 has been one of medium production. A generous supply of the
demands of consumption has been assured, and a surplus for exportation,
moderate in certain products and bountiful in others, will prove a
benefaction alike to buyer and grower.
Four years ago it was found that the great cattle industry of the
country was endangered, and those engaged in it were alarmed at the
rapid extension of the European lung plague of pleuro-pneumonia. Serious
outbreaks existed in Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky, and in Tennessee
animals affected were held in quarantine. Five counties in New York and
from one to four counties in each of the States of New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were almost equally affected.
With this great danger upon us and with the contagion already in the
channels of commerce, with the enormous direct and indirect losses
already being caused by it, and when only prompt and energetic action
could be successful, there were in none of these States any laws
authorizing this Department to eradicate the malady or giving the State
officials power to cooperate with it for this purpose. The Department
even lacked both the requisite appropriation and authority.
By securing State cooperation in connection with authority from Congress
the work of eradication has been pressed successfully, and this dreaded
disease has been extirpated from the Western States and also from the
Eastern States, with the exception of a few restricted areas, which are
still under supervision.
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