CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REBORT. 213 



sick and the dead, it was conclusively ascertained that the 

 disease was Spanish fever. A subsequent examination of 

 two herds in Lanesborough, one of which belonged to Mr. 

 H. A. Noble, and one on the fiirm of Mr. Cannon, of Ty ring- 

 ham, the same disease was found, with symptoms and results 

 identically like those of this disease described in our last 

 report. In that report we called the attention of the legis- 

 lature to the character of that disease, its origin, and the 

 manner in which it reached and was disseminated among our 

 home stock. The examination we have made of the case the 

 present year, discloses the fact that some of our stock-dealers, 

 influenced only by motives of cupidity, and regardless of the 

 general good, have disregarded the teachings of our former 

 experience, and deliberately brought to and scattered through 

 certain sections of the State, that class of cattle which alone 

 communicates this disease. It was found that, in all the towns 

 named, the disease was contracted by their home stock from 

 Texas cattle, recently from the South-West, bought in Albany 

 by drovers, and driven in various directions through our 

 western towns, to be sold to butchers. If such animals were 

 transported by rail to Brighton, and were taken directly to 

 the abattoir for slaughter, little harm would result. But 

 when driven from town to town, or when brought in contact 

 with cattle kept on our farms for dairy purposes, to fatten, 

 or for work, the most serious results are sure to follow. As 

 we, in our last report, called the attention of dealers in stock 

 to this important matter, and urged upon them the propriety 

 of refusing to deal in such cattle during the warm season, and 

 without preventing a recurrence of the acts complained of, 

 we deem it our duty to recommend measures which shall be 

 effectual in protecting our cattle and their owners from a 

 repetition of the calamity. As was recommended by the 

 national convention, held in Springfield, 111., in 18 G8, to 

 consider this subject, all of the Western Border States have 

 enacted laws which are rigidly enforced, and which for])id, 

 under heavy penalties, the bringing of Texas cattle into their 

 territory during the warm months. These laws have given 

 them effectual protection from the disease. But the exten- 

 sion of railroad transportation to the far West enables West- 

 ern drovers to shun those States, and to put that class of 



