442 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



more stringent ; otherwise this market would be flooded with 

 tuberculous cattle from other States, for which the purchasers 

 would soon after look to the Commonwealth for payment. 

 While the Board does not feel that the work of testing out- 

 of-the-State cattle is by any means perfect, yet it does feel 

 that there has been a great improvement over the old methods 

 of admitting all classes of cattle within the borders of the 

 State. Many of the buyers affirm that they have had less 

 trouble with their cattle during the last two or three years 

 tlian ever before ; therefore the Board believes it to be good 

 judgment not to relax this work in the slightest degree. 



Besides the cattle that have come into the State through 

 the quarantine stations, 6,143 have been brought to other 

 points, being tested with tuberculin prior to shipment or 

 after arrival in this State. There have been 615 permits 

 issued since Dec. 15, 1898. 



The second portion of the work includes that coming 

 under the general inspection made by the local inspectors. 

 An order for an examination of the neat stock in the State 

 and the premises on which they were kept was sent out in 

 the following letter to inspectors, October 1 : — 



To the Inspectors of Animals. 



The Board of Cattle Commissioners hereby directs that you shall 

 make a general inspection of the neat stock in your town, and in- 

 cidentally other farm animals, to commence at once, and to be 

 completed on or before the fifteenth day of November. 



The law under which you work is chapter 408 of the Acts of 

 1899, a copy of which will be sent you, together with the neces- 

 sary papers for carrying it out. The portion contained in sections 

 19 to 32 relates especially to your duties, and you should make 

 yourself familiar with it. You will also be provided with a book 

 to carry out the provisions of section 23, with books to carry out 

 the provisions of section 29, and a quarantine book for cases of 

 tuberculosis or other contagious disease among animals. 



Cattle are not to be quarantined as tuberculous unless they 

 show enough evidence of disease to make it possible to condemn 

 them on a physical examination, except where the udder of a milch 

 cow is tuberculous ; on no account are cattle to be quarantined 

 simply for the purpose of testing them with tuberculin, when they 

 show no physical signs of disease. The only exception to this 

 rule is, that it is the duty of inspectors to quarantine all cattle 



