1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 401 



Hog Cholera. 

 This disease is more or less prevalent in the State. No 

 new facts have been found which lead us to change the opin- 

 ion heretofore expressed in relation to the manner in which 

 it is brought here. Our observations for several years have 

 proved that with us it rarely if ever spreads from herd to 

 herd, but is fed to them in the refuse of pork brought from 

 the West and which contains its germ. This fact has been 

 so often stated, and is so well known, that it seemed to us 

 that all swine owners who feed it should do so at their own 

 risk and expense, and guard the public frorn danger by keep- 

 ing their herds strictly confined on their own premises. 

 Accordingly, on the 24th of February regulations were issued 

 to the boards of health of the cities and towns, directing 

 them in all cases of disease to require strict isolation of the 

 entire herd infected, at the expense of the owner, but in no 

 case to appraise or slaughter the animals ; also, to notify the 

 commissioners if the contagion assumed a malignant or any 

 peculiar type, that such measures might be adopted as the 

 public safety required. Under this system there has been no 

 increase of the malady, and whatever burden it may have 

 caused, it has been borne, not by the State treasury, but by 

 those who could see profit in swine feeding notwithstanding 

 its risks. None of the other contagious diseases which have 

 caused us so much trouble and loss in some former years 

 have visited us, and though our competition with Western 

 stock products has been sharp, ours have been reasonably 

 prosperous. 



LEVI STOCKBRIDGE, 



A. W. CHEEVER, 



J. F. WINCHESTER, V. S., 



Cattle Commissioners. 

 Boston, Jan. 7, 1889. 



