THE FIRST UNFORTUNATE RESULT.
There recently began in Scotland an earnest movement to induce the British Government to remove the restrictions regarding the importation of American cattle, so far at least as to allow the admission of store cattle for feeding purposes. Meetings have been held in various parts of Scotland at which petitions like the following were adopted.
To the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone.
We, the undersigned, farmers and others, respectfully submit that the present law which allows the importation of cattle from the United States, and shuts out store cattle, is unjust and oppressive to the farmers of this country, and enhances the price of meat to the public. We therefore crave that her Majesty's Government would open the Scottish ports to the introduction of store cattle from the Western States where disease does not exist.
At a meeting at Montrose, where the above petition was favorably acted upon, Mr. Falconer, an Angus farmer, in supporting the motion, said that the first great remedy for the present depression was to get cheap store cattle, and that would never be got until they opened their ports to the Western States of America. He held that if farmers would agree to insist on live store cattle being allowed to be landed in Britain, they would soon get them. When they get them, he, if then alive, would be quite willing to take all the responsibility if they found an unsound or unhealthy animal amongst them. He appealed to butchers in Montrose, who had been in the way of killing States or Canadian cattle, if they were not totally free of disease; and he would like to ask them how many Irish cattle they killed which were perfectly healthy. If they got stores from America, they would not effect a saving in price, but, as they all knew, sound healthy cattle fed much quicker than unsound, and were of better quality, and thus an additional item of profit would be secured to the farmer.
Mr. A. Milne, cattle-dealer, Montrose, corroborated Mr. Falconer's statements as to the healthiness of American stock, while Irish cattle, as a rule, he said, had very bad livers.
Mr. Adamson, Morphie, said he had recently been in the Western States of America, and had seen a number of the ranches in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. The cattle there were certainly fine animals—well bred, as a rule, either from Herefords or Short-horns, with a dash of the Texan cattle in them. When there, he made careful inquiries as to the existence of disease, and he was universally told that such a thing as epidemic disease was unknown. No doubt in the southern part of Texas there was a little Texan fever, but that, like yellow fever, was merely indigenous to the district. It was never seen out of these parts. He considered it would be a great boon to the farmers of Scotland if they could get cattle £3 or £4 cheaper than at present. It would save a very considerable amount of money in stocking a farm, and would also tell on the profits of the feeders, and the prices paid by the consumers. They had them to spare in America in the greatest possible abundance.
At a late meeting of the Prairie Cattle Company, having headquarters in Scotland, sheriff Guthrie Smith expressed the opinion that the great profit in the future of American ranch companies must be the trade in young cattle. He believed that Scottish farmers would ere long get all their young cattle, not from Ireland, but from the United States. It did not pay them to breed calves; they were better selling milk. The fattening of cattle for the butcher was the paying part of the business, but the difficulty was to get yearlings or two-year-olds at their proper price.
Here promised to arise a new outlet for American stock, and one which most of us probably never thought of. The proposition had in it the elements for the building up of a great commercial industry and of affording a new and rapid impetus to the breeding of cattle upon the plains. But just at this time comes the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Kansas, Maine, and Illinois, and of course puts an end to all hopes in this direction, for many months at least. This is the result of the disease at its first appearance. Here is prospective loss before the Government veterinary surgeons fairly reach the field of operations against its spread—the loss of a trade which would have been worth many millions to the cattle raisers of the great West. It is to be feared that this is but the beginning of the losses the disease will entail upon us. Can Congress longer hesitate in this matter of providing an efficient law for protection from contagious animal diseases? It would seem not. Our State authorities, also, must be alert, and render all possible aid in preventing the spread of this wonderfully infectious disease.