CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 313 



CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 



To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts : 



The Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle 

 can report, that during the year the interest of the State 

 in stock husbandly has been prospered by good returns 

 for its products, and the exemption of its cattle from any 

 wide-spread contagious or epidemic disease. Our sister 

 State of Connecticut, to which the importation of cattle is 

 from the same source as our own, has not been so fortunate, 

 and has experienced considerable loss by an outbreak of 

 Spanish fever, and of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. In the 

 month of September, much alarm was caused in several Con- 

 necticut towns by the appearence of the first-mentioned dis- 

 ease, which it was proved was communicated by cattle pur- 

 chased in the cattle-yards at West Albany. About the same 

 time complaint was made to us that the disease existed in 

 West Springfield, Pittsfield and Grafton, in this State, also 

 caused by Western cattle purchased at the same place. In 

 consideration of these facts, the Commissioners deemed it 

 wise to visit Albany, and ascertain whether Spanish fever 

 prevailed there to any great extent, or along the line of trans- 

 port of Western cattle, with the intention of interdicting 

 their transfer to this State if such was found to be the fact. 

 This was done by two of the Commissioners, on the 11th of 

 September, in company with Dr. Cressy, Veterinary Professor 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, who was employed 

 by the commissioners of Connecticut for that purpose. A 

 searching examination satisfied us that the disease did not 

 exist there, or in the country adjacent to the usual routes of 

 transportation. But we ascertained that the laws of the 

 Western Border States, which forbid the driving of cattle 

 into their territory from Texas or the plains, during the warm 

 season, were being evaded ; and that cattle had been driven 

 direct from Texas, and shipped at points west of Kansas, and 

 transported thence to our Eastern markets, stopping on the 

 line only at feeding-places, as The law requires, until they 

 reached Albany. We found that some of these Texan cattle 



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