246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



all the cars which they used in the transportation of cattle, 

 and all the places where they yarded, and confined them. 



During the winter, fat cattle from Albany and the West were 

 allowed to be brought here and slaughtered to supply our mar- 

 kets, and no harm resulted therefrom ; but on the arrival of 

 warm weather, after much expense had been incurred in clean- 

 ing and disinfecting the cattle yards and drives of Brighton, 

 it was found that cattle which were just developing the disease 

 were being brought there from the yards at Albany. This fact 

 proved that the market places of Albany were poisoned and 

 that all our labors and regulations would be of no avail unless 

 the proprietors of those grounds could be induced to cooperate 

 in the work by cleansing and purifying their premises. Commu- 

 nications were therefore sent to them stating the facts in the 

 case, and on the 20th of March the Commissioners visited that 

 locality and had a conference with them on the subject. As 

 the result of that conference was not satisfactory and the evil 

 still continued, on the 30th of that month our cattle dealers 

 were notified of the danger, and advised to follow the example, 

 of the traders of Rhode Island, by completing arrangements 

 for supplying themselves with cattle from Chicago via the 

 Grand Trunk and Northern Railroads, thus avoiding the infec- 

 tion at Albany. At the same time communications were sent 

 to the lessees of the Albany yards and the superintendent of 

 the New York Central Railroad, making a renewed statement 

 of the facts and giving information of the purpose of this 

 Board to prohibit all cattle which should go into those yards 

 from coming into Massachusetts unless they were thoroughly 

 disinfected. 



The result of these efforts was to awaken those parties to the 

 importance of the matter and secure their hearty cooperation ; 

 and on the 21th of April a communication from them notified 

 us that their premises had been cleaned and disinfected with 

 carbolic acid, and were believed to be perfectly safe and harm- 

 less. Through the operation of these various measures, the 

 new developments of the disease, which occurred on the 

 approach of the warm season, materially subsided during the 

 month of April, and at the time of the reception of the news 

 of the purification of the market grounds of Albany, there 

 were no known cases of it in the Commonwealth. At that time 



