238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The transactions in this class of stock during the warm 

 season have been small indeed ; but they have resulted in 

 the loss of more than twenty choice natives, and the entire 

 damage has been more than twenty-five hundred dollars, — a 

 sum which, though comparatively small, should serve as a 

 danger-signal to all interested in the cattle-trade, and stimu- 

 late the Board to be more alert in future. 



Spanish fever has caused suffering and immense loss in 

 the Western States during the summer ; and for a time it was 

 hazardous for our dealers to purchase the native animals 

 of those States, lest they might have been exposed to the 

 disease while in transit, and loss caused by its subsequent 

 development. The attention of the Board was called to a 

 case of this character. A farmer of Great Barrington, in 

 Berkshire County, purchased a drove of cattle, natives of 

 Ohio, and transported them to his home over the route 

 usually taken by Texans. Most of them contracted the 

 fever, which afterwards developed, causing the owner much 

 loss, and creating public alarm, though the disease was con- 

 fined to that herd. 



The operations of tliis disease at the West, and our slight 

 observation of it during the year, have served to confirm the 

 commissioners in their oft-repeated opinion of its peculiar 

 mode of transmission and dangerous character, and justify 

 the legal enactments of the Legislature to prevent its intro- 

 duction to the State. Of the sum of $500 appropriated by 

 the Legislature of 1876 for the purposes of the commission, 

 $45.35 was expended in defraying the expenses of 1875, and 

 $62.60 was expended in 1876. The remaining sum of 

 $392.05 by law now reverts to the general treasury. If, 

 during the present year, an exigency should occur requiring 

 action and expenditure by the commission, they would be 

 powerless : therefore, as a measure of precaution and safety, 

 they recommend to the Legislature to make a small appro- 

 priation, to be used by them in accordance witt the provis- 

 ions of the law. 



Levi Stockbridge, 

 E. F. Thayer, 



Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle. 



Boston, Jan. 6, 1878. 



