REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 



To the no7iorable Senate and House of Reiiresentatives. 



The Board of Cattle CommissioDers herewith presents its 

 annual report, as required by section 3, chapter 408, Acts 

 of 1899, of the work it has performed during the past year. 



The Leo;islature of 1899 recodified the laws relating^ to the 

 contagious diseases of animals, this recodification being chap- 

 ter 408, Acts of 1899, which went into effect May 25 last. 



During the past year the commission has acted under two 

 sets of laws : until May 25 it carried out the provisions of 

 chapter 491, Acts of 1894, as amended by chapters 476 and 

 496, Acts of 1895, and further amended by chapters 454 and 

 486, Acts of 1896 ; since then it has had the enforcement of 

 the new law to deal with. 



It seemed best to the last Legislature to codify and con- 

 solidate the laws under which the Cattle Commission worked ; 

 for, although the last codification of these laws was as recent 

 as 1894, yet there had been numerous amendments to them 

 every year since, making them bulky, beside which they re- 

 quired a good deal of work from the commission which had 

 more to do with local health matters than with the suppres- 

 sion of contagious diseases among; domestic animals through- 

 out the State. It was also the opinion of the last Legislature 

 that a Board of three commissioners would be a more con- 

 venient size than one of five, as it had been since 1894, and 

 that a smaller Board could administer the law more expedi- 

 tiously and economically. The new law also brings the in- 

 spectors of animals in the various cities and towns into more 

 direct business relations with the Board than formerly, thus 

 stripping it of much of the red tape that had hampered it, 

 and bringing the inspectors of animals more under the imme- 

 diate control of the commission, rendering it easier to make 



