500 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Therefore, complying with the recommendation of the Com- 

 mission, an act was passed in 1881, which said that in cases 

 of glanders and farcy an animal that was condemned and 

 killed by order of the Co^nmissioners should not be appraised 

 and paid for. Since that date the practice of the Board has 

 been in accordance with this law. In codifying the laws in 

 1882 the general features of all these enactments were com- 

 bined in chapter 90 of the Public Statutes, including the 

 phraseology of the act of 1881. Prior to the passage of the 

 last-named act, it was legal for both municipal officers and 

 the Commissioners to appraise and pay for animals con- 

 demned as glandered ; afterwards such a procedure was 

 illegal only when done by the Commissioners. Whether this 

 distinction was an oversight or an intent we would not 

 decide, but it is certain that it results in great inequality and 

 injustice. If the selectmen or mayor of a municipality 

 neglect to perform their duty as required by the law, to 

 notify the Commissioners within twenty-four hours after a 

 case has come to their knowledge, and taking charge of it, 

 condemn, appraise and kill the animal, the appraised value 

 must be paid. Cases have arisen where this appraisal, under 

 the management of selectmen, has been as high as two hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars for an animal not fit to live, and which 

 by its contagion was a menace to the community. This 

 great inequality would be remedied by an amendment of 

 section 16 of the Public Statutes, abrogating the power 

 of selectmen, mayors and aldermen, as well as commission- 

 ers, to appraise and pay for glandered animals ; and we 

 recommend the proposed change to your consideration. 



LEVI STOCKBRIDGE, 

 E. F. THAYER, 

 H. W. JORDAN, 



Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Domestic Animals. 

 Boston, Jan. 9, 1885. 



