1921.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 57 a 



summer months. Under normal conditions there are but few 

 demands for testing in summer. The hatching season is over 

 and the poultrymen have not made up their matings for the 

 next season. With a sufficiently large appropriation to carry 

 on the work continuously throughout the, year, however, the 

 summer months could be used to very good advantage by 

 the department in visiting the flocks tested earlier in the season 

 and checking up the work, a procedure necessary in any effort 

 directed toward the suppression and elimination of any animal 

 disease. 



It is to be hoped that the General Court at its next session 

 will considerably increase the appropriation under the special 

 act of May 23, 1919, thereby enabling us to carry on the work 

 continuously throughout the year, to extend the field of oper- 

 ations to include a larger number of flocks, and thus to increase 

 the services of the department for the benefit of the poultry 

 keepers of the Commonwealth. 



Investigations. 



BaciUary White Diarrhea in Chicls; a Study concerning the 

 Diagnosis of Bacterium Pullorum infection in the Domestic 

 Fold. — This project is being conducted as an Adams fund 

 study, and the details are in charge of Dr. George Edward 

 Gage. The laboratory studies of the problem have been com- 

 pleted, and a start has already been made in the preparation 

 of the manuscript for a bulletin, which, it is expected, will be 

 ready for the printer early the coming year. 



Stiidies relative to Hog Cholera; its Complications, Prevention 

 and Inherited Immunity. — These investigations are being car- 

 ried on with a herd of from 75 to 100 hogs kept by a farmer 

 here in Amherst and fed upon raw garbage that is collected 

 about town, which, it is reasonable to infer, is liable at any 

 time to be contaminated with pork scraps from localities where 

 hog cholera exists. It is a well-recognized fact that many of 

 the outbreaks of hog cholera occurring among Massachusetts 

 hogs have their origin in fresh pork scraps that find their way 

 into garbage. The work already done in connection with this 

 experiment has shown beyond a doubt that hog cholera of the 

 usual type can be prevented by the use of anti-hog cholera 



