From theguardian.com
12 August 1925: With a case of foot-and-mouth disease in the New Forest, all beasts within a radius of 15 miles from the infected spot need to be brought in forthwith
NEW FOREST: A disconcerting bill was posted on a barn last week. A case of foot-and-mouth disease, and all cattle within a radius of 15 miles from the infected spot to be brought in forthwith. We are just within the area. At once the search began to get the beasts in before they were impounded. And what a search! You would think it was a case of looking for a needle in a bundle of hay. It did mean hours of tramping by day and night, with the moon hidden and a heavy rain falling. For the cattle have been out a long time now, and though each man knows which way he drove his own out weeks ago they may have shifted their ground some half a dozen miles or more.
Each beast is duly marked, and a register kept by the agistor, as he is called. But the forester needs no mark. He can pick out his own at sight, and often his neighbours’ too, from a congregation of beasts which are still a good way off. Indeed one man with only a heifer or two may have a harder task than one with 10 or 20. A group catches the eye, but you may pass your heifer with only a bush between and see no sign. They are all in now, or almost all, and the Forest looks queer and empty without its groups of cattle. It will be a good day for beasts and owners when they are out of their cramped quarters and free of the forest again.
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