CATTLE DISEASES. 



REPORT OF THE CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 



The Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle, re- 

 port, that nearly the whole of the year since our last report was 

 made, has been one of thrift to our cattle-growing interest and 

 its products. Until within a few weeks our herds have not 

 been visited by any general malady, though at different times 

 our attention has been called to herds which it was feared were 

 afflicted with contagious disease. In April we were notified 

 that a herd in Holden, Worcester County, was undoubtedly 

 sick with contagious pleuro-pneumonia. Dr. Martin, of "Wor- 

 cester, made an examination of the case, and reported his opin- 

 ion that it was a case of simple pneumonia and not contagious ; 

 and the animals recovering without any dissemination of the 

 malady, proved the correctness of the opinion. So terrible and 

 costly were the ravages of contagious pneumonia in former 

 years, that many cattle-owners are extremely sensitive on that 

 point, and often fear great danger where none exists. 



Ordinary pneumonia, not uncommon at some seasons of the 

 year, yields readily to treatment, is entirely different from tiie 

 contagious type, and need cause no alarm. In our last report 

 mention was made of a very fatal and apparently new disease 

 in this State, which had carried off numbers of cattle in Great 

 Barrington and Egremont, in Berkshire County. That disease 

 did hot entirely abate during the cold weather of last winter, 

 but it was of a milder type, and there were no fatal cases. On 

 the coming of warm weather, it again broke out in a more viru- 

 lent form, and a fatal case occurred in May. The disease con- 

 tinued in that locality through the warm season, or until about 

 the first of December, affecting not only cattle, but horses, 

 sheep and swine, many of which have died. This disease, 

 though localized to the towns of Barrington, North Egremont 

 and Alford, and not found in other parts of the State, has been 

 a great scourge, and injflicted losses on some farmers that are 

 well-nigh ruinous. In some cases they have lost nearly their 

 entire stock of domestic animals, and if they have the ability, 

 they fear to risk the experiment of replenishing it. Examina- 

 tions made this season have convinced us that the disease is one 

 which is common in tlie fens of Scotland, in some of the 

 swampy, malarious districts of our Southern States, and known 



