6 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Through the exertions of the Commission it is hoped the 

 worst is now over, but good policy may still dictate that the 

 same Commission, or some other, be continued for the purpose 

 of guarding against a re-appearance of this fatal disease. A 

 standing commission, ready to act in case of emergency, 

 would have far less to do than one appointed to act in the 

 premises after the facts became known. The formalities of 

 legislation necessarily require much time, and the disease 

 spreads rapidly before there is any power to act for its suppres- 

 sion. 



Could the original commissioners have been appointed 

 and begun to act as soon as the existence and nature of 

 the disease became known, no doubt the ultimate expense 

 would have been far less, and the result more satisfactory. 



The Act under, which the present Board of Commissioners 

 was created, provided that the report to be by them submitted 

 to the legislature, should appear in the Report of the Secretary 

 of the State Board of Agriculture. It is as follows : — 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massa- 

 _ chusetts. 



By an Act of your honorable bodies, approved February, 

 1862, the present commission on contagious diseases of cattle 

 was established. 



On the 25th of the same month the following named persons 

 were appointed by the governor and council to constitute the 

 board of commissioners, viz. : E. F. Thayer, of Newton, H. L. 

 Sabin, of Williamstown, and James Ritchie, of Roxbury. 



Two of these persons were without experience in regard to 

 the subject matter committed to their charge and inclined to 

 receive with great caution the evidence of the existence in this 

 country of a contagious lung disease among cattle. The State 

 had already expended large sums of money, and great losses 

 had been incurred by individuals, for the purpose of purging 

 our cattle herds of the disease termed pleuro-pneumonia. In 

 the community there was a divided sentiment in regard to the 

 policy [)ursued by the previous board of commissioners in rela- 

 tion to this nuitter. Many ridiculed the ^holc proceedings 

 and some of the members of your lioiiorablo bodies were much 

 inclined to doulit the expediency of establishing a new board 



