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15
it is not at all unlikely that if the price should continue to
increase, the oupidity of dealers and the difficulty of supplying
the usual amount of animal food among poor classes may afford
fresh employment for your officers.
HIGH PRICE OF MEAT.—MURRAIN.
The rise in the price of meat has, I believe, taken place in
consequence of the prohibition of the importation of cattle from
certain ports in the Baltic, from whence we have been accustomed
to derive a supply, where a murrain,* attended with an
alarming mortality, is said to be raging among cattle. I learn
from very good authority that the murrain in question is that
pulmonic disease with which we are here but too well acquainted,
and although it is extremely severe in and about the Baltic
ports, from whence the cattle have been used to be shipped to
England, more alarm is created than would otherwise exist, in
consequence of a much more terrible and fatal disease being
prevalent in Russia, termed the "steppe murrain," which, I am
told, resembles human cholera. The various governments are
making great exertions to insulate districts which are affected,
by surrounding them with military cordons. No such disease,
I believe, has made its appearance here.
COWS AND COW HOUSES.
From this subject to that of cows and cow houses the transition
is easy. I have visited and examined, I believe, every
one in the Hamlet, to ascertain their cubical measurement, their
general condition, and to endeavour to obtain intelligence
respecting the subject of the last paragraph.
There are in the Hamlet 39 establishments,—where 482 cows
are supported. Some have the advantage of grazing in summer,
and with the exception of some easily remediable defects of
paving, draining, and removal of manure, I think ought not to
* The term murrain is not confined to one particular disease. It is derived
from a Greek word, meaning "to waste away," and has long been used to
denote several kinds of Epizootic disease.