Page images
PDF
EPUB

some buffalo from Africa; but they were required to be placed in quarantine, and we examined the blood of those animals, to ascertain whether it was safe to bring them in.

Mr. LAMB. That applies just to diseased animals.

Doctor FARRINGTON. We have to test them first to know whether they are diseased or not. Some of these animals that may appear healthy externally may carry in their blood some of the microscopic animals which render them harmful to the domestic animals of the United States. So any importations of this kind should be under proper precautions to prevent bringing in disease which would be detrimental to the live stock industry of the United States. That is the first thing-to preserve the industry we already have.

Mr. BROUSSARD. Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Doctor a question or two?

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Mr. BROUSSARD. Doctor, this bill provides that the Secretary of Agriculture shall investigate and import wild and domestic animals whose habitats are similar to government reservations and lands at present unoccupied and unused, "provided that in his judgment said animals will thrive and propagate and grow useful either as food or as beasts of burden." Your objection to the introduction of these animals, as I understand it, is that they should not be introduced unless proper examination is had?

Doctor FARRINGTON. That is it.

Mr. BROUSSARD. Under the wording of this bill, would not the matter rest entirely with the Department of Agriculture to determine these facts before the animals were brought in?

Doctor FARRINGTON. I suppose it would; yes, sir.

Mr. BROUSSARD. So that these examinations would be had; and of course if any animal were offered to be introduced here that showed any signs of disease that might spread to domestic animals, under this law the Secretary of Agriculture or your department would exclude that animal; would it not?

Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes, sir. I think an investigation would have to be made to some extent in the country where the animals came from, to see what diseases were prevalent there; and then, of course, the animals would be placed in quarantine after they arrived in this country before they could be turned loose.

Mr. BROUSSARD. That would be your method of doing the thing if Congress were to appropriate any money for the purposes provided in this bill?

Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. BROUSSARD. And this bill would not compel you to do any other thing but just what your judgment might direct in that respect? Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes, sir. Our province would be to protect the live stock of the United States.

Mr. BROUSSARD. And you would do that if the discretion was vested in you?

Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I should like to ask you just a little further in relation to the present law. I have not read it recently. Do you think that law would have to be amended in order to make this one consistent with it? Does the present law actually prohibit the importation of the animals you name into the United States, or does

it merely declare that they shall only be imported when free from disease?

Doctor FARRINGTON. The provision is, "That the importation of meat, cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, and swine, which are diseased or infected with any disease, or which have been exposed to such infection within sixty days before their exportation, is hereby prohibited."

The CHAIRMAN. That applies only to those that are diseased or have been exposed or infected?

Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes. Of course they would have to be examined to see whether they were infected or had been exposed. The CHAIRMAN. Yes; we understand that.

Mr. BROUSSARD. Mr. Chairman, I studied this law very closely before drawing this bill. It only applies to animals that are diseased. Whether they are cows, or horses, or whether they are elephants, or anything else (even the human animal is amenable to this principle), if they are diseased they are to be excluded. But the law does not preclude the bringing in of animals that are proven to the department to be healthy and sound.

The CHAIRMAN. I think you can take it for granted that the Agricultural Department would not let in diseased animals.

Mr. BROUSSARD. That is why, in drawing this bill, we have left all the discretion in the Secretary of Agriculture to do as he thinks best. Mr. CHAPMAN. I should like to ask Captain Duquesne a question. Mr. BROUSSARD. The captain wishes to ask Doctor Farrington a question.

Mr. CHAPMAN. All right; excuse me. Go ahead.

Captain DUQUESNE. It is this: You know that Barnum & Bailey and all the menagerie people have brought in a great number of animals from Africa. What provision is made for quarantining those animals?

Doctor FARRINGTON. They are quarantined under the officers of the Bureau of Animal Industry.

Captain DUQUESNE. Those animals associate with horses and cattle and various other animals, and are led all over the country. Many of them are just merely led at the end of a string camels, giraffes, elephants, etc. all over the country. So you see the machinery you already have in operation prevents disease coming in; and there is no disease in this country that has been brought in in that way so far as I know. I have read a good deal about the matter; and so far as I know (I may have overlooked some of the documents) there is no disease in this country now that has been imported by menagerie animals. Yet these menagerie animals walk all through New York State, from village to village, and the horses associate with them, and so on.

Doctor FARRINGTON. Since 1890 these animals have all been inspected and quarantined and examined before they have been allowed to be admitted. Of course in menageries and zoological parks they are kept separate, and do not mingle with the animals in general. Captain DUQUESNE. Yes; but there were circuses before 1890, and they were pretty lax over that inspection. Yet there is no disease on record that they have brought in.

Mr. BROUSSARD. You have the machinery now for that inspection? Doctor FARRINGTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. BROUSSARD. So that if this bill passes, you will use that machinery in so far as animals are being brought here by the Government?

Doctor FARRINGTON. That is it. I simply wanted to bring that fact to the attention of the committee.

Mr. CHAPMAN. I wanted to ask the captain if there is any disease that is peculiar to the hippopotamus?

Captain DUQUESNE. Not that have been found. Your department might find some; but Mr. Hornaday has never found any, up in New York. He is an expert in the matter of breeding them. In nine years he bred eight hippopotami. His female hippopotamus there ("Miss Murphy," they call her) bore eight, and he raised seven, and he is making money out of them. He is selling them to other zoos, and thus making them pay a considerable amount of revenue. The hippopotamus has to breed. She has to make love one season of the year, and naturally the result is a calf. It is just as easy to do as not; and so he sends them around and sells them.

The Doctor here was speaking of water buffalo in the Philippines. The water buffalo in the Philippines is absolutely different from the buffalo of Africa. They are not related to one another within the ordinary limits; so they can not be compared.

The CHAIRMAN. The African buffalo is a land animal, is it not? Captain DUQUESNE. Yes; surely.

The CHAIRMAN. It is not necessary for it to find a mud puddle every afternoon?

Captain DUQUESNE. No; but they do find them. Our African buffalo will run around marshes and parts of the country where the ordinary domestic cattle will not go.

In my talk I did not suggest anything that would conflict in any way at all with the domestic animals, because you might as well have domestic animals as wild animals. So far you have only the domestic animals here; but there is a vast expanse of territory in this country that at present will produce nothing but frogs and rattlesnakes that can be inhabited by dozens and dozens of different species of African animals.

The CHAIRMAN. Are buffalo domesticated there?

Captain DUQUESNE. They can be domesticated. They have never had them domesticated, for the simple reason that they grow wild, and when you want some meat you go out and pot one. You send the daughter or the son out on his way to school, and give him a couple of cartridges and tell him to bring home some buffalo meat for the house and the Kaffirs. He brings in the best meat for the house, and the Kaffirs go out and cut their part off. So what is the use of taking the trouble of breeding them?

The CHAIRMAN. I thought perhaps they used them as beasts of burden, as the ox is used."

Captain DUQUESNE. As beasts of burden they use an imported animal with a hump, like the sacred cattle of India.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not the African buffalo used at all as a beast of burden in Africa?

Captain DUQUESNE. In German East Africa they cross them with ordinary cattle, and they ride them there. I have seen German cavalry going over the country on oxen. In fact, the postal department

of German East Africa is run in some places with camels and in other places with oxen.

If you could make an arrangement so that I could show you these beasts of burden, I have them all on a moving-picture film that I took down there. I can show you the donkeys and camels and oxen and human beings all acting as beasts of burden. I have pictures of a great number of these animals that I have spoken about, taken in their various habitats in the different countries where they live. Of course I have all these pictures on transparencies, and there is no use in trying to bring them up here to pass around. But all the animals I mention make their habitats where nothing else will live. Even in Africa different species make their habitats in different places from others. Some will go right out on the mountain side.

For instance, the wart hog could be easily introduced into this country. It is a wild animal and it is a splendid animal for keeping the undergrowth out of the forests-the undergrowth that strangles the forests. They keep that undergrowth down and let the air through.

I went up the side of one of the mountains there, where if it had not been for the wart hog tracks I would have had to hack my way at the rate of perhaps 3 or 4 feet a day through the vines and undergrowth; but as it was, I followed the wart-hog tracks. They make tracks everywhere; and they are used by all the other animals— lions, and leopards, and all that sort of thing. Even human beings follow those tracks. Where the undergrowth is very thick, they make tracks underneath the stuff. The wart hogs could be put into the swamps down there; and the wart hog is good food. Of course I am not a very good judge of good food, because I have eaten snake and crocodile; but I have lived in Washington, too, and I can make a comparison. [Laughter.]

The CHAIRMAN. You have given us a very interesting morning, Mr. Broussard.

Mr. BROUSSARD. I simply want to say that if the committee desires it, the captain would be very glad to show to the committee the pictures he has of all of these animals in their normal size. He would be very glad to do that, if it will add information to what we have said to the committee in regard to them.

Captain DUQUESNE. It will amuse you, also.

The CHAIRMAN. It is certainly very kind of you to offer it, I am sure; but I do not know of any arrangement that could be made. The difficulty would be in darkening any room sufficiently. All of these rooms are well lighted. How long will you be in the city?

Captain DUQUESNE. I do not know. It all depends on whether you are going to get those animals or not. I will come and tell you some more about it if you want me to.

(The committee thereupon adjourned.)

EXTENDING THE BENEFITS OF THE MORRILL ACTS TO THE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, D. C., December 10, 1909.

The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m.

The chairman, Hon. Charles F. Scott, in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, the committee has been called together this morning to consider H. R. 12343, a bill to amend an act entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agricultural and mechanic arts, approved July 2, 1862, and acts supplementary thereto, so as to extend the benefits thereof to the District of Columbia."

Representative Boutell, of Illinois, the author of the bill, is present this morning, together with Mr. Justice Harlan and Doctor Harlan, Commissioner Macfarland, and Doctor Needham, and other gentlemen representing the District of Columbia and George Washington University, who have asked for a hearing on the bill, and I am sure the committee will be glad to listen to anything they have to say. I will ask Mr. Boutell, the author of the bill, to make whatever statement he desires, and to present the other gentlemen in the order in which he would like to have them heard.

STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY S. BOUTELL, OF ILLINOIS.

Mr. BOUTELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the provisions of this bill are familiar to all of you, so I need not even take time now to read it. In brief, the object of the bill is to place the District of Columbia on an equal footing with the States and Territories of the United States in reference to the benefits contemplated by the Morrill Act.

I would like to say, in the first place, that this bill which I have introduced here, giving these benefits to the District of Columbia, and the original Morrill Act itself, are following out simply the well-planned ideas of our forefathers in reference to giving federal encouragement to education. It manifested itself in the very earliest days of the Republic. It shows itself in the ordinances of 1787 and down through our entire legislative history. There has been shown a clear disposition to give reasonable aid and encouragement to education throughout the country. The Morrill Act, as you know, provided that the proceeds from the sales of public lands should be divided among the colleges of the different States that would give instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. This division of these proceeds continued until the act was amended, making a

« PreviousContinue »