REPORT. 



To the State Board of Agriculture. 



The twelfth semiannual report of the Chief of the Cattle 

 Bureau, as required by section 3 of chapter 116 of the Acts 

 of 1902, is herewith respectfully submitted to your honorable 

 Board. 



This report gives in detail an account of the work of the 

 Cattle Bureau for the fiscal year from Dec. 1, 1900, to 

 Dec. 1, 1907. 



Last September His Excellency the Governor authorized 

 the Chief of the Cattle Bureau to represent this Common- 

 wealth at the meeting of the Interstate Association of Live 

 Stock Sanitary Boards, at Richmond, Va., which took place 

 on the 16th and 17th of that month. While the west and 

 south were well represented, as was also the United States 

 Bureau of Animal Industry by its Chief and others, yet 

 Massachusetts was the only northeastern State to send a 

 delegate. At this meeting papers were read and discussed 

 relating to " Meat inspection," " Milk inspection," " Tick 

 eradication," and the " Control and suppression of rabies," 

 the latter paper being by the delegate from Massachusetts. 



At the time of making the tenth semiannual report, men- 

 tion was made of the importance of a suitable system of meat 

 inspection for the State, in slaughterhouses where there is 

 no federal inspection by agents of the United States Bureau 

 of Animal Industry. The same conditions obtain as at the 

 time of making the last annual report. While the laws upon 

 the statute books are adequate, their administration and en- 

 forcement are in the hands of the local authorities in the 

 various cities and towns, with the result that the efficiency of 

 the law is hampered by local politics, or its usefulness is im- 

 paired because it is not enforced. 



