FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE. 137 



wise ; the payment during five years, prior to August 31, 

 1887, of 11,000, annually, to aid the department of the her- 

 barium at the Bussey Institute ; in 1884 the sum of $300 to 

 Prof. William G. Farlow, of the Institute, for engravings to 

 illustrate a treatise on rust in grain and grasses ; in 1882 

 the sum which had been usual for several years, for scholar- 

 ships at the State Agricultural College ; in 1883, for en- 

 gravings, and printing a treatise on the pine moth of Nan- 

 tucket, $237 ; in 1886, for certain experiments designed to 

 destroy potato bugs, $100 ; in 1887, for premiums for the 

 exhibition of the Massachusetts Poultry Association, $300 ; 

 in 1888, in aid of the United States agricultural exhibit at 

 the Exposition in Paris, by a display of plates published in 

 Michaux works, $100 ; in 1889, for premiums for the Bos- 

 ton Horse Show, $150, and in the same year, for an in- 

 sectory at the State Agricultural College, $200; in 1890, 

 for premiums at the Massachusetts Poultry Association's 

 exhibition, $200 ; and in 1891, for preparatory measures 

 for a Dairy Exhibit from New England at the World's 

 Fair, to take place at Chicago, $175. 



In 1886 an investigation was begun, under the auspices 

 of the society, of certain diseases of milch cows, more es- 

 pecially that known as tuberculosis. In 1887 a farm in 

 West Roxbury was leased, which is called in the society's 

 records, the Experiment Farm. A considerable number of 

 diseased animals were procured, enough to represent the 

 several noticeable stages of the progress or development of 

 the disease. The chief immediate purpose of the investi- 

 gation was to ascertain whether the milk of tuberculous 

 cows was so infected by germs of the disease as to be a pos-' 

 sible, or probable, means of spreading the disease among 

 human beings, both when the animals were diseased in the 

 udder, and elsewhere. Incidentally the phenomena of the 

 disease, as a matter of scientific inquiry, and methods of 

 cure, were taken into consideration. A number of calves 

 of healthy animals were purchased, and these were fed with 

 the milk of diseased cows, and the consequences noted. 

 Experiments by inoculation were also made. Rabbits and 



