466 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



kill 1,200 or 1,300 a year; and, in justice to the fanners, it 

 does not seem possible to lower the average price paid for 

 each animal much below $20 each. This means that it will 

 take about $25,000 a year, for the present, to pay for diseased 

 cattle killed, leaving the other $25,000 for the necessary 

 expenses in examining quarantined cattle, glandered horses, 

 keeping up the quarantine work, paying for office and lab- 

 oratory work incidental to the duties of the commission, 

 and meeting any emergency that may occur. 



The cattle killed on the annual inspection either show 

 physical evidence of disease, or appear to have tuberculosis 

 of the udder, and are unfit animals to furnish a public milk 

 supply. Koch's announcement that there is no danger to 

 the public health from tuberculous cattle has aroused much 

 interest and comment ; but his opinion was by no means 

 acquiesced in by the majority of the members of the Congress 

 of Tuberculosis in London, last July, and, until more is 

 definitely known concerning the correctness of his views, 

 no person of sound judgment cares to advocate the use of 

 milk for human beings that will produce disease when fed 

 to calves and swine. 



Glanders is another serious problem to be dealt with. 

 The total equine population of Massachusetts is about 

 75,000, according to the last United States census; yet, in 

 1901, 745 horses were killed in the State with some form of 

 this disease, — that is, about 1 per cent, of the horses of the 

 State were infected with it, — a condition of affairs to call 

 for the gravest concern on the part of every horse owner, 

 horse lover, or person who has the slightest regard for the 

 health or wealth of the community. 



Under its proper heading, this report gives more in detail 

 the work done on tuberculosis and glanders, and also inves- 

 tigations made concerning blackleg or symptomatic anthrax, 

 actinomycosis, and accounts of outbreaks of rabies and hog 

 cholera. 



Financial Statement. 



The following financial statement gives in detail the ex- 

 penditures of the Cattle Commission during the year. 

 Under the provisions of chapter 408, Acts of 1899, the 



