No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 483 



proceed to the slaughter house, if the inspection there is 

 properly made. Theoretically, the health of the people is 

 protected ; practically, it is a question if the inspection 

 is anything more or less than a farce in many places. 



There is also a section in the law relative to meat inspec- 

 tion requiring all calves killed for veal to be over four weeks 

 old ; yet, as a matter of fact, half the calves killed for food 

 are not more than one to two weeks old ; a number are only 

 a few days old, and some are no better than living abortions. 

 If veal from calves under four weeks old is unhealthful, the 

 law should be enforced ; if it is proper that human beings 

 should eat meat from any kind of a calf, the law should be 

 repealed. If the law as it stands is too strict, it should be 

 modified to meet the requirements of civilization, and then it 

 should be uniformly enforced everywhere. 



At some abattoirs there is an inspector of the United 

 States Bureau of Animal Industry to examine beef and pork 

 for export to foreign countries ; he will not pass anything 

 that the sanitary laws of those countries consider as unfit for 

 food for their peoples, yet in some places what he will not 

 pass as fit for food is sold to our own citizens. Surely the 

 people of this country ought to be entitled to the same pro- 

 tection from the State that the United States government 

 guarantees to foreigners. 



The present policy of the Massachusetts Board of Cattle 

 Commissioners follows the plan laid down in the resolutions 

 given above, outside of the matter of slaughter-house inspec- 

 tion. The methods formerly pursued by the State have been 

 found too extravagant and expensive. Similar measures were 

 tried in Belgium, and proved there to be too costly. 



During the past year cows that showed marked physical 

 evidence of tuberculosis were condemned and killed ; a few 

 have been passed as fit for beef, but most of them were only 

 fit to be rendered. When cows can be condemned on a 

 physical examination, the work can be done at a less cost 

 than under the former system, when the agent tested cows 

 with tuberculin, and then reported the results to the ofiice 

 and received instructions which to kill and which to release. 

 Under the present system, the agent examines, appraises 

 and kills a diseased cow all at one visit. This system seems 



