No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 259 



send them to the slaughterhouse, subject to the usual in- 

 spection. 



A number of outbreaks of symptomatic anthrax or black 

 leg have occurred in Worcester, Hampshire and Berkshire 

 Counties. When this disease appears in a pasture an agent 

 is sent to inoculate the exposed young cattle with black- 

 legoids for those owners who desire it. Young cattle given 

 this protective inoculation do not develop the disease, and 

 no more deaths from it are reported among animals in these 

 pastures after being given the treatment. 



Several cases of actinomycosis have been reported among 

 cows. Animals that are emaciated and suffering with open 

 discharging sores on the jaw bones, or with actinomycosis 

 of the udder, are killed; those but slightly diseased and in 

 good condition are released, with the advice to the owner 

 to dry off and fatten as rapidly as possible, and then to dis- 

 pose of the creature for beef. 



There has been a little trouble from verminous bronchitis 

 in sheep in Franklin County, but it does not seem to have 

 been very serious, and is not a contagious disease within the 

 meaning of section 28, chapter 90, Revised Laws. 



A supposed outbreak of a contagious disease in a herd 

 of cows at Boxborough last July was investigated by an 

 agent of the Cattle Bureau, who ascertained that four ani- 

 mals had died. The cause of death was decided to be 

 poisoning from eating nitrate of soda that was bought for 

 fertilizing purposes, and left where the cattle could lick it. 



The last of May or early in June four cows died on a 

 farm in Taunton. The farm was visited by the Chief of 

 the Cattle Bureau and Dr. A. G. Walker of Taunton, who 

 reported the cases. It seemed as though the animals must 

 have been poisoned in some way, and it was thought that 

 possibly sheep laurel might have been the poisonous agent, 

 as quantities of it grew in the pasture where the cattle were 

 kept. A cow was taken there and tied up and given a diet 

 of sheep laurel for two weeks, and appeared to thrive on 

 it. The cause of death still seems to be a mystery. 



A number of supposed cases of poisoning have been heard 



