No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 251 



licsidc the diseases specified above, which are among the 

 contagions diseases recognized by the statntes of the Com- 

 iiioiiwcahh, as specified in section 28, chai)tcr 90 of the Re- 

 vised Laws, attention is called every year to other diseases 

 of a conimnnicable character that are not specified in the 

 law as contagions, bnt which agents are sent to investigate 

 and to advise owners upon, although no further action can 

 be taken. 



One of these is mange among horses. A number of cases 

 have been reported during the year, but the law does not 

 permit of quarantining animals affected, or compelling 

 owners to treat cases. Occasionally an old neglected horse 

 dies of it, but as a rule it is a disease that is amenable to 

 treatment, and one that does not increase materially in this 

 climate. If it should assume dimensions sufficient to make 

 it a menace to the health and value of our equine population, 

 no doubt horse owners would be aroused to asking for legis- 

 lation, which would at once be granted if there was a pop- 

 ular demand for it. 



Occasionally a farmer may have an outbreak of pneumonia 

 of an infectious character in his herd, to which the attention 

 of the Cattle Bureau is called. It is not unusual in the 

 winter months for a farmer to buy a new cow at Brighton, or 

 elsewhere, and after she is taken home she may develop pneu- 

 monia, or diarrhoea, and infect others in the herd, and these 

 troubles may cause occasional fatalities. Agents of the Cattle 

 Bureau are frequently sent to investigate cases of this kind, 

 but as these troubles are not included in the contagious dis- 

 eases specified in the law, no action is taken beyond giving 

 the owner some good advice, and no further action is neces- 

 sary or legislation needed for diseases of this kind. 



There has been rather less trouble than usual from diseases 

 classified under the generic term of " hog cholera," including 

 hog cholera, swine plague or anything analogous to it. Out- 

 breaks have occurred during the year in Greenfield, Colrain, 

 Fall River, Grafton, Barnstable, Kingston and Salem, but 

 as a rule the herds involved were not large and the losses 

 have not been very hea\y. An account of the method of im- 



