No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 257 



the State annually, equal to over 10 per cent of the cows 

 of the State. If every farmer when he buys a new cow 

 would disinfect the stalls where the old ones stood, and then 

 buy only tested cows to replace the old ones, there would 

 be much less tuberculosis than there is to-day among the 

 milkmen's herds in eastern Massachusetts ; but, as it is, 

 many of these healthy cows are taken to infected barns 

 and later sold to the State or the bologna sausage maker 

 because they have gone to pieces with tuberculosis. The 

 average milkman will buy any good-looking cow he sees on 

 the Brighton market, and does not seem to care whether 

 she is a healthy tested cow from without the State or an 

 untested Massachusetts cow. 



If the appropriations of the Cattle Bureau permitted, it 

 would be well to test with tuberculin all the cattle offered 

 for sale on the Brighton market, killing all reacting animals, 

 then trace every reacting Massachusetts cow back to the 

 herd in the western part of the State from which she came, 

 clean up the herd, disinfect the barn, and then have the 

 owner understand that if any more cases of tuberculosis 

 ever occurred on his farm he would forfeit his right to 

 compensation from the State in the future. If in addition 

 owners of fancy herds where there is tuberculosis would 

 systematically immunize the calves, bovine tuberculosis, with 

 its attendant porcine tuberculosis, could be rapidly dimin- 

 ished. It would take more money to do this than present 

 appropriations permit of, but it would pay in the end. 



During the last three or four years a monthly report has 

 been sent to the United States Department of Commerce 

 and Labor, giving a list of the receipts of cattle, calves, 

 sheep, lambs, swine and horses at Boston. The following 

 table shows the animals received during the twelve months 

 ending Xov. 30, 1907. These figures include the cattle and 

 sheep intended for export, as well as those to be slaughtered 

 at the abattoirs around Boston, and the milch cows for sale 

 to farmers. Boston is quite a distributing point for horses 

 that are sold at the sales stables to go into cities and towns 

 surrounding Boston, as well as into some of the other New 

 England States. 



