§ MR. WILLIAM FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick'sI beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether it is intended to recommend the institution of scientific experiments to try the efficacy of inoculation as a preventive of pleuro-pneumonia, as the varied and general experience of the Colonies is almost entirely in favour of that system; and whether the Board of Agriculture for England and Scotland, and the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council of Ireland, will in future consult, as far as may be consistent with safety, the convenience of cattle traders, cowkeepers, and others interested in the imposition of restriction Orders which have the force of an Act of Parliament?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. CHAPLIN, Lincolnshire, Sleaford)It is not my intention to take the course suggested. Numerous experiments of various kinds have been made with a view of testing the value of inoculation as a preventative of pleuro-pneumonia; but experience has clearly shown that the disease can never be stamped out by such means. I may refer the hon. Member to the Report of the Departmental Committee of 1888, which is very clear on this point. With reference to the imposition of restrictive Orders, I can assure the hon. Member it has always 323 been the desire of the Board of Agriculture to adopt the course suggested by him, so far as it was possible to do so consistently.
§ MR. FIELDHave the experiments to which the right hon. Gentleman refers been instituted in foreign countries, or are they the results of experiments which have been tried here?
§ MR. CHAPLINThe experiments to which I refer have been made, I believe, in foreign countries as well as in this country, and with the result I have endeavoured to describe.