448 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The receipt, at this time, of this very large number of 

 notices of quarantine, together with the fact that the appro- 

 priation made for the work of the Board has been exhausted 

 by payments made and obligations incurred, brought the com- 

 mission face to face with a question of considerable economic 

 importance, the proper solution of which is difficult. Inas- 

 much as the inspectors are public officers, charged with the 

 duty, imposed by law, of making regular and thorough in- 

 spections of all neat cattle, sheep and swine found within the 

 limits of their several cities and towns, the Board has no 

 power to prevent these inspections, nor has it the power to 

 forbid the quarantining of animals suspected of being dis- 

 eased. 



Further, section 37 of chapter 16 of the Public Statutes 

 provides that : — 



No public officer shall make purchases or incur liabilities in the 

 name of the Commonwealth for a larger amount than that which has 

 been appropriated by law for the service or object for which such 

 purchases have been made or liabilities incurred ; and the Common- 

 wealth shall be subject to no responsibility for the acts of its servants 

 and officers beyond the several amounts duly appropriated by law. 



Finally, under the provisions of the law relating to quaran- 

 tine the statute is imperative that the Commonwealth shall 

 pay to the owners the entire cost of maintaining quarantined 

 animals after the lapse of the first ten days. 



In riie face of this dilemma the commission have considered 

 it more desirable to incur the expense of making the examina- 

 tions as soon as possible after receipt of the notice, freeing 

 such animals as were found not to be tuberculous, and keeping 

 the others in quarantine until it becomes possible, by means 

 of a further appropriation, to compensate the owners for their 

 losses and destroy the animals. 



Inasmuch as the order of this Board, issued March 25, did 

 not require that a regular inspection should be made until 

 October, 1895, or later, nor that the returns should be com- 

 pleted before the first day of May, 1896, the commission is 

 not in possession of complete returns showing the results of 

 a thorough inspection of neat cattle, sheep and swine through- 



