470 REPOUT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, 



the part of the authorities has ever been made to ascertain with any ex- 

 actness the localities of the diseased herds. 



On the 8th of March I proceeded to Baltimore, -where I at once called 

 upon Mr. William B. Sands, editor of the American Farmer, a gentle- 

 man who had greatly interested himself in this matter, and who gave 

 me all the information in his possession as to the location and extent of 

 the plague in the State, as well as kindly furnishing me with letters of 

 introduction to the officers of the different agricultural societies through- 

 out the State. 



On the 9th of March I visited Hagerstown, the county seat of Wash- 

 ington County, where, on the next morning, I called upon P. A. Witner, 

 esq., secretary of the county agricultural society. He said that he did 

 not beheve there was any disease in the county ; that upon the day be- 

 fore there had been a meeting of the board of agriculture, at which there 

 had been a good representation from all the different sections. Those 

 present agieed that they had never known or heard of a case of lung 

 plague in any part of the county. 



I was next introduced to Mr. J. B. Bansman, a cattle dealer of this 

 place. In the pursuit of his business he had been all over the county 

 repeatedly, but had never known of a case of the disease. The drift of 

 cattle in this place was entirely from Western Virginia through to Bal- 

 timore, never, so far as he knew, from Baltimore here. In his trade he 

 feels very much the evils of the English embargo. It makes a differ- 

 ence to him of at least 810 per head in the price of his cattle. I then 

 saw Dr. H. J. Cozens, an English veterinary- surgeon, who had been 

 located here for the past 15 years, and whose practice extends over the 

 entire county. He had had a considerable experience with the lung 

 plague in Eugland, but had never seen but one case in this country, 

 and that was many years ago, in Virginia. He is sure there is none in 

 this county, nor has there Wer been. Several other gentlemen from 

 different localities were seen, but always with the same result. One 

 farmer had a cow which he had recently bought that was coughing and 

 not doing well. I visited her and found her suffering from tuberculosis. 



In the afternoon I proceeded to Frederick City, the county seat of 

 Frederick County. Here, upon the 11th of March, I called upon Mr. J. 

 W. Baugliman, secretary of the local agricultural society. He did not 

 know of any diseafied aiiimah-., but took me out to the court-house, where 

 we saw and questioned a numl^er of gentlemen fr-om different parts of 

 the county. Xonc of these knew of any cases of this disease : they 

 were very sure that had there been any unusual sickness they would 

 have known of it. 



I next saw Dr. P. R-. Courtneay, an English veterinary surgeon. He 

 had been here but a (•♦Vinparatively short time, and had heard of nothing 

 that caused him to think there was any of this disease in the county. 

 He kindly offered to bear tlie matter in mind, and if any cases of the 

 disease came to his knowledge he would let me know at once. Here, as 

 in Washington County, the whole drift of cattle is from west to east. 



In the afternoon 1 went to W^estrainster, the county seat of CarroU 

 County, and with my letter of fintradnction called upon Col. W. A. 

 McEallip, president of the count v a gricultural socie ty . He was sure there 

 was no disease of the kind hi the counxy, but he said that it was quite a 

 common thing at certain seasons of tlite year for cattle to be brought 

 here from Baltimore. This I rega rded ar. a very suspicious circurasta^nce, 

 and so asked for an introductio a to some cattle dealer in town. This 

 was kiiid^v r;Ta.ite(-. a^id I mr>o< cdvA to call upon Mr. Edward Lynch. 



