220 . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



WORK OF THE STATE CATTLE COMMISSION. 



UY PROF. LEVI STOCKBRIDGE, CHAIRMAN. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of Ag- 

 riculture * : — I deem it fitting that a representative of the 

 Cattle Commission should come here and speak of the work 

 of the commission, and especially so because the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts is indebted to the efforts and the 

 influence of this Board for the formation of the Cattle Com- 

 mission, and for the fact that we have had any legislation for 

 the purpose of suppressing contagious diseases among our 

 domestic animals. 



Now, you will please excuse me if I say a word about the 

 history of this legislation and the history of the diseases 

 among our cattle, for reasons which I will show before I 

 close. Our first legislation was in the year 1860. The 

 cause of that legislation was the -bringing into this country 

 from Holland of two Holstein, or, as they were then called, 

 Dutch cattle, which, when landed in Massachusetts, were 

 found to be I)oth sick with some disease almost unknown, 

 practically unknown to all the veterinarians we had in the 

 State at that time as a disease which they had ever handled 

 or seen, although as educated nifui they might know a good 

 deal about it from the books. These two animals went to a 

 town near Boston, and were put into a large herd of the 

 same kind of cattle. Both of them soon died, and in the 

 course of a month, or a little more than that, other cattle in 

 the herd were found sick, exhibiting the same sym[)toms that 

 the originally imported cattle exhibited. This importation 

 was in June, 1851). A few animals were scattered in the 

 adjoining towns from Avhero these cattle were first placed, 

 and one poor calf was taken from there to Brookfield. In 



* stenographic Report by C. E. Barnes. 



