ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



SECRET ART 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts. 



There seems to be now a reasonable certainty that we shall 

 leave that monstrous curse to the farming interest, commonly 

 called pleuro-pneumonia, as a legacy to posterity, not because 

 it is out of our power to extirpate it, but because we are 

 •unwilling to lift a hand with sufficient energy to put it down. 

 The old adage that delays are dangerous was never more fully 

 illustrated than it has been in the history of the efforts made 

 from time to time, spasmodic in their character, to get rid of 

 this disease. 



Early in March of 1860 it was announced to the legislature 

 that pleuro-pneumonia had broken out in North Brookfield, 

 carried there by cattle bought in Belmont, near Boston, and 

 that it was spreading from herd to herd. The legislature were 

 also promptly informed that a small appropriation would check 

 and exterminate it there. Now, if action had been taken with- 

 out delay, a very small sura would have effected the object. 

 That is easily and clearly demonstrated by events which sub- 

 sequently took place. 



But a delay of thirty-five days followed, and in the mean- 

 time every day and every hour was spreading the contagion, 



