No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 495 



yet been received by the Board of Cattle Commissioners ; as 

 it is, the matter is sufficiently serious. 



It is estimated by the Board that the average value of the 

 horses killed in Massachusetts during the past year was 

 about $78.50 per head ; this means an annual loss to the 

 horse owners of the State of over $42,000 ; as some cases 

 are not reported, it means a loss of considerably more if 

 these were included. 



Glanders and farcy spread in a variety of ways : public 

 watering troughs undoubtedly play a part in infected locali- 

 ties ; cohabitation of the diseased and healthy ; trading and 

 selling diseased horses by cheap horse traders ; and infected 

 animals on peddlers' and advertising wagons going around 

 the country also cause fresh outbreaks. Improper disin- 

 fection of premises, harnesses and utensils after removing 

 diseased animals will also perpetuate the trouble. 



During the past year cases have been called to the atten- 

 tion of the Board of persons knowingly selling glandered 

 horses, with the result that a man in Worcester was fined 

 $50 for selling a glandered horse, on complaint of Commis- 

 sioner Herrick. 



A man was fined $20 for selling a glandered horse in 

 Palmer, the case being prosecuted by the district police, at 

 the request of the Cattle Commission. 



Two men are held for the grand jury at Salem this Janu- 

 ary in $300 each for selling a horse with farcy in Saugus, on 

 complaint of Commissioner Peters. 



A complaint has been made to the district police of a 

 Somerville man selling the horse to one of the Saugus men 

 by the Commission. Complaint has also been made to the 

 district police of a man in Westminster for knowingly re- 

 moving or concealing a horse with glanders. It is hoped 

 the district police will be able to prepare and prove charges 

 against these men. 



Complaint was made to the district police of a firm of 

 barge owners in Nahant, who sent a horse to a Boston sale 

 stable last summer sufiering with glanders, which was sold 

 to a man in Stoneham, where it was killed by order of the 

 Board. (Nothing seems to have come of this.) 



In many of these cases the difficulty is to prove that a 



