522 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



To which he made the following reply : — 



Washington, D. C, June 15, 1898. 



Dr. Austin Peters, Chairman, Board of Cattle Commissioners, 



Commonwealth Building, Bosto?i, Mass. 



Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of your letter of the 6th inst., 

 relative to the necessity for stationing an inspector of the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry at Albany, N. Y., to supervise the shipment 

 and isolation of quarantine cattle. The matter will receive im- 

 mediate attention, and it is probable that an inspector will be 

 stationed at Albany, as recommended by yourself. 



Very truly yours, James Wilson, Secretary. 



An inspector of the United States Bureau of Animal 

 Industry was soon after stationed at the Albany stock yards, 

 to see that the rules and regulations of the Department 

 of Agriculture, requiring cattle from infected districts to be 

 driven through separate chutes and yarded in different pens 

 from northern cattle, were enforced. 



This Board is also informed that new stock yards at 

 Albany have been built this autumn by the New York 

 Central Railroad Company. 



As the outbreak of 1897 was clearly due to the utter 

 neglect to carry out the rules and regulations of the Bu- 

 reau of Animal Industry relating to "scheduled" cattle at 

 Albany, by the New York Central Railroad Company, the 

 farmers and drovers who lost cattle from Texas fever at that 

 time were advised to pool together and employ legal counsel 

 in an endeavor to recover the value of the animals that died 

 from this cause. The result of this action has been that the 

 New York Central Railroad Company has settled with the 

 Massachusetts owners of these animals on a basis approxi- 

 mating four-fifths of their value, amounting to about $1,600. 

 The liability of the railroad company having been thus 

 established, the parties in Connecticut who lost cattle were 

 notified of the fact, and a settlement on the same basis was 

 secured for them, amounting to in the neighborhood of $350 

 more. 



It is apparent from the foregoing statement that the action 

 of the Massachusetts Cattle Commission in investigating the 

 outbreak of Texas fever in the summer of 1897, as it did, 



