396 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 



To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts. 



In making their annual report, the Cattle Commissioners 

 have nothing specially new to communicate. No contagious 

 disease with which we were not previously familiar has 

 attacked our domestic animals, though in one case it has 

 apparently so increased as to require our official action. 

 The State has been entirely free from certain diseases which 

 in some former years have caused our people much alarm, 

 and which have been suppressed at great expense. Glan- 

 ders or farcy has always been here, and, so far as our obser- 

 vation can determine, will always remain, because of the 

 importation of infected animals from other States. It is 

 probable that our utmost efforts will only result in keeping 

 the disease in abeyance, and the great mass of our equine 

 stock free from its infection. During the year we have been 

 notified of about ninety suspected cases ; some of them 

 proved to be catarrh or caries, but most were certainly 

 glanders ; about ten per cent of these were killed by 

 the voluntary act of their owners, and the remainder by 

 order of the Commissioners. This is a larger number than 

 was destroyed by us the previous year, but is about the 

 general average, and does not indicate a greater prevalence 

 of the trouble. Not only horses and mules, but men, are 

 susceptible to this contagion ; and, so far as the medical 

 faculty know, a case of it was never cured, which fact 

 should cause it to be greatly feared, and lead all persons, 

 whether owners of such stock or not, to heartily co-operate 

 with the authorities in discovering and suppressing it. We 

 find it in two forms, — acute and chronic ; the latter making 



