VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 121 



pasture, a test has been required this year, for last season 

 upon test of one car load 12 were returned. Two cows that 

 were slaughtered out of one herd last January were found to 

 have been purchased of a Massachusetts man who had cattle 

 here to pasture last season. The Commission did not find the 

 man but a relative was found in Vermont who saw fit to pay 

 one-half the appraised value of the cows which was paid 

 over to the owner of the herd. 



More than one thousand head came in to pasture and will 

 be returned at the close of the pasture season. Permits other 

 than pasture permits have been issued for nearly seventeen 

 hundred head to come into the state. All these have been 

 tested except young- calves and these we require to come, as 

 much as possible, from healthy herds. 



In the opinion of the Commission Vermont is gaining- in 

 reputation as a state for healthy cattle and in many of the 

 towns where all the cattle have been raised tuberculosis does 

 does not exist unless brought in by the purchase of some im- 

 proved stock. 



Some of the larger towns and cities would do well to require 

 of the milk men that their herds be tested for there are some 

 localities in Vermont where there is reason to believe tuber- 

 culosis exists to some extent. There are some towns that 

 could be named where cattle buyers cease to go to purchase 

 cattle after the first visit. 



The belief of some that no disease exists among cattle and 

 by others who possibly may have suspicion, but do not wish 

 to know the fact, aids very much in keeping cattle in circu- 

 lation in different parts of the state and does not lesson the 

 distribution of the germs of disease. 



SHEEP. 



A disease has prevailed to some extent in Caledonia coun- 

 ty, brought there, perhaps, by importing some flocks. The 

 Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, tells us it is pronounced " Oesophazostoma 

 Columbianum" better known as the Nodular disease and 

 more familiar in the flocks in the state of Virginia. This dis- 

 ease shows itself mostly in the intestines and lungs, and the 

 Department informs us that the mutton is not injured for con- 

 sumption so that in order to exterminate the disease which 

 appears in all the flocks "so far as we have investigated" those 

 fit for market at any price are sent and the remainder buried. 

 In one small flock none were fit for mutton and in all the 

 flocks many had died previous to our coming where the dis- 

 ease was well established. But few lambs live through the 

 first winter. No remedy for this disease is known to us. 



