6 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



not only by buying and selling, but by the working of cattle 

 in the highways, bringing them necessarily into constant con- 

 tact, the sound with the infected, so that before the first able 

 commission was really created and ready for duty, under the 

 Act approved April 4th, a very large number of animals had 

 been exposed, and many had become diseased. The danger 

 had increased day by day in geometrical ratio, and the sum 

 appropriated, which., if granted lohen asked for, would have 

 been amply sufficient, was found to be wholly inadequate to 

 effect the object. , 



As it was, so thorough and efficient was the commission, the 

 disease was extirpated in that section. But a single yoke of 

 oxen had escaped, and could not be traced. Their history is 

 not generally known to this day. 



The various steps which have been taken with reference to 

 this calamity, have been fully given in my late Reports, and it 

 is important that this record should be continued. For this 

 reason, I cannot hesitate to give place to the following papers, 

 which have already been presented to the legislature in connec- 

 tion with the address of His Excellency the Governor. With 

 respect to the reports of commissioners, the law requires their 

 insertion here. The first is that of the late commissioners who 

 resigned on account of the refusal of the last legislature to make 

 an appropriation which would make their labors of any avail. 



It is as follows : — 



To the Honorable Senate and House of Rei)resentatives of the Commonwealth of 



Massachusetts. 



The Commissioners on contagious diseases of cattle, in their 

 Report of January, 1863, stated that there was not then a visi- 

 ble case of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia existing in the 

 State. In February following, they were called upon to visit 

 supposed cases on the farm of Wm. P. Childs, in Waltham, and 

 subsequently communicated the results of their investigations 

 to the legislature, stating that they were unable to trace the 

 origin of the disease in that herd. It was afterwards ascer- 

 tained that the disease had existed in Lexington, " in a secret 

 hiding place," for several months -previous. 



The course taken was first to isolate the herd of cattle in 

 Waltham, after which active measures were taken to discover 



