196 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The law provides that any one who intends to conduct a 

 slaughtering establishment shall annually in the month of 

 May apply for a license. In cities the mayor and aldermen, 

 and in towns the selectmen, or such board as they may 

 designate, or in a town of over live thousand inhabitants the 

 board of health, if any, may grant slaughterhouse licenses. 

 The licensing authority is required to report to the Chief of 

 the Cattle Bureau the applications received for licenses and 

 the action taken thereon. Under this provision of the law 

 39 cities and towns have reported licensing 81 slaughter- 

 houses in 1907, against 50 cities and towns reporting 117 

 licensed slaughterhouses in 1906. 



In 1906 the State Board of Health made an investigation 

 of the slaughterhouses of the Commonwealth, and from its 

 investigation and the figures in the Cattle Bureau office it 

 appears that at that time there were slaughtering establish- 

 ments in at least 210 of the 354 cities and towns of the State, 

 comprising a much larger number of slaughterhouses, and 

 there is no reason for believing that this number has dimin- 

 ished in 1907. 



There must be a number of unlicensed slaughterhouses, 

 and no doubt many cattle are killed that are unfit for beef, 

 and calves that are too immature to be fit for veal. The law 

 provides that a calf shall not be killed to be disposed of for 

 food until it is four weeks old ; but as a matter of fact the 

 great majority of calves slaughtered have not reached this 

 age, neither does it seem necessary that they should. If the 

 law were changed, making it unlawful to dispose of a calf 

 for food before it is three weeks old, it would be sufficient, 

 and then it should be enforced, instead of being a dead letter 

 as at present. Furthermore, the regulations of the United 

 States Bureau of Animal Industry for meat inspection re- 

 quire a calf to be at least three weeks old, and in this respect 

 they conflict with the Massachusetts law. 



During the year ending Xov. 30, 1907, 18 meat-stamping 

 outfits were furnished to 38 cities and towns through the 

 Cattle Bureau office, as required by the provisions of chapter 

 220 of the Acts of 1903. The Legislature of 1902 repealed 

 sections 103 and 104 of chapter 75 of the Revised Laws, 



