10 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In speaking of Scotland, he says : — 



" It appears from the official returns that the attacks in Scotland 

 amount to 4G,861, being 4.841 per cent, of the entire stock of the country. 



" In Ireland but fifty cattle were exposed to the disease ; twenty-nine 

 were attacked and either died or were killed, and twenty-one were 

 slaughtered healthy. 



" Nothing can show more clearly the propriety of the ' stamping-out 

 process ' than this result. In it we have a parallel with what took place 

 in France, where oidy 43 animals, healthy and diseased, were sacrificed 

 to the pole-axe, the country being thereby freed from the plague." 



The Cattle Plague Act alluded to above, resembles tl# law 

 passed by the legislature of Massachusetts at the extra session, 

 in its general features ; and the course adopted by the author- 

 ities of Great Britain, in relation to rinderpest, is similar to that 

 taken by the present board of Commissioners in Massachusetts 

 in relation to pi euro-pneumonia. 



Prof. Simonds further says that a focus of the disease still 

 exists ; consequently the law passed by Congress, preventing the 

 landing of any cattle from foreign seaports, should be continued 

 in force.' 



We append to this Report a statement of the entire expendi- 

 ture by the State of Massachusetts for the extirpation of the 

 disease since its commencement in 1860, obtained from the 

 treasurer's books, which is $67,511.08. In addition to this 

 amount, the several towns where the disease has been found 

 have paid one-fifth of the cost of isolation, and of the appraised 

 value of all the cattle killed, amounting to a sum which we 

 estimate at -f 10,000. (There is no printed report of the number 

 of cattle killed by order of the selectmen of towns in 1863.) 



The amount paid from the treasury on account of pleuro- 

 pneumonia is as follows : — 



