10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and aldermen and selectmen of all the cities and towns of the 

 Commonwealth, advising them to strictly enforce section 5 of 

 the Acts of 18(30, chapter 219, by forbidding the driving of all 

 cattle to or from their municipalities, or from place to place 

 within their limits. The people were urged to cooperate with 

 their authorities by giving information and assisting to enforce 

 the law. We have urged the officers to be vigilant in the dis- 

 charge of their duties, and particularly to direct the radical 

 purification of all places that have been contaminated by the 

 contagion, by the free use of the strongest and most effectual 

 disinfectants. As a cooperative measure, the cattle grounds 

 and yards of Brighton must be thoroughly purified. The virus 

 of the disease was undoubtedly trodden into the soil there dur- 

 ing the mild weather of early December, and though now dor- 

 mant in the frozen earth, is yet alive, and will be roused to 

 activity when the grounds are softened by thaws or the return 

 of spring. We are of the opinion that the necessities of the case 

 will fully justify us in making the outlay requisite to carry away 

 the surface of those grounds to as great a depth as the poison 

 has been trodden, and eradicate it by the use of sufiicient quan- 

 tities of carbolic acid and chloride of lime. Facts have come to 

 the knowledge of the Commissioners which lead us to the confi- 

 dent belief that the virulence of this disease can be mitigated, 

 and the disease itself stayed, by the application of diluted car- 

 bolic acid to the feet of all the animals in a herd which has been 

 contaminated, whether the disease has become developed or not, 

 and its application at the same time as a disinfectant to the 

 floors and mangers of the buildings in which they are kept. 



Your Commissioners would express the hope that the meas- 

 ures now in operation will prove effectual to not only check but 

 eradicate this scourge and prevent its obtaining a permanent 

 location in our midst, by which result it would entail enormous 

 losses upon our stock owners, disarrange and injure our mar- 

 kets, fill the community with fear and distrust, and possibly 

 injuriously affect the sanitary condition of our people. This 

 hope may, however, be disappointed. The disease is new with 

 us, and nobody here has had experience in attempts for its 

 eradication. The losses it has brought upon some of the coun- 

 tries of Europe would indicate that it would be a wise policy, a 

 true economy, to employ more stringent measures, and to make 



