232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ing thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars before 

 any other State in the Union had any legislation on the sub- 

 ject of contagious diseases among cattle. So much for the 

 honor and credit of Massachusetts. 



Another thing. Wherever there has been anything done 

 in this line, the best thing that has been done has been 

 where they have followed the track of Massachusetts ; and 

 from Massachusetts they have ol)tained a large share of all 

 the intelligence they have had in relation to handling these 

 diseases by law. Why, the State of New York had con- 

 tagious pleuro-pneumonia in the '40's, and yet it never 

 made any attempt to stamp it out as Massachusetts did. 

 The State of Now York, I think, up to to-day has never had 

 a board of cattle commissioners, nor taken any action in 

 this direction. But the disease spread from New York. It 

 went to New Jersey, it went to Pennsylvania and Maryland, 

 it went to the District of Columbia, it went to Virginia, and 

 finally it began to travel West, and began to get in among 

 their thoroughbreds and improved cattle. It travelled until 

 it got to the Mississippi River, and the whole world was in 

 arms in relation to it ; for, if the disease should once get 

 on the great ranches in the far West, the loss would be untold 

 millions, and therefore the State of Illinois woke up. There 

 were great cattle markets at Chicago, and they said some- 

 thing should be done by the State. They only volunteered 

 to help the United States government, which took hold 

 with the State of Illinois and stamped it out ; and then the 

 United States government, following the track of Massachu- 

 setts as far as it could, went to work and attacked it in 

 every State where it existed. They ransacked the State of 

 New York, the State of Pennsylvania, and other States, and 

 ferreted out every case of contagious pleuro-pneumonia they 

 could find ; bought the cattle outright, the government pay- 

 ing for them, and then killed them all ; and within the last 

 four months Secretary Rusk has published to the world that 

 the last case of pleuro-])neumonia in the United States of 

 America has been stamped out. Uncle Sam followed Massa- 

 chusetts, and learned from Massachusetts how to do the 

 work he has done for the Union. 



Massachusetts has not such a bad climate ; we are not so 



