412 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



loivn meeting, under which action can be taken that will enable the 

 selectmen of all the towns in the Commonwealth to appoint 

 inspectors of provisions as the statutes provide. The Cattle 

 Commissioners will cheerfully co-operate with towns and cities 

 in any reasonable attempt to suppress or curtail the sale of milk 

 or meat from cattle suspected of being infected with tuberculosis ; 

 but they believe that the appointment of an inspector, either a 

 member of the local board of health or some other suitable person, 

 is the first necessary step to be taken in each city or town. 



Publishing Regulations. 

 The death of citizens of this State from the loathsome and fatal 

 disease of glanders contracted from diseased horses carelessly or 

 ignorantly handled or treated, or surreptitiously removed from 

 isolation ; the too general negligence of animal owners, veterina- 

 rians and others in giving notice of the suspected existence of 

 contagious diseases ; and the lax or indifferent action of municipal 

 officers in taking possession or control of animals within their 

 jurisdiction suspected of being infected with contagion, — make 

 it imperative that we call the attention of all good citizens to the 

 statutes provided for the suppression of contagion among domestic 

 animals, and that boards of health in each of the cities and towns 

 of the Commonwealth publish and place upon their records such 

 regulations concerning the treatment of suspected cases of con- 

 tagion among domestic animals as will enable the proper authori- 

 ties to subject offenders to legal prosecution. 



Penalties. 

 The statutes provide that any person who fails to comply with 

 a regulation made or order given by the Cattle Commissioners or 

 boards of health, in the discharge of their duty, is punishable by 

 a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not 

 exceeding one year ; and any city or town whose officers refuse or 

 neglect to carry into effect the provisions of chapter 252 of the 

 Acts of 1887, relating to the publication of regulations, the isolation 

 of suspected animals, and the carrying into effect of all proper 

 orders from the Cattle Commissioners, shall forfeit a sum not ex- 

 ceeding five hundred dollars for each day's neglect. 



Levi Stockbridge, 

 A. W. Cheever, 

 O. B. Had wen, 



Cattle Commissioners of Massachusetts. 



