22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



says he examined the lungs carefully, and certainly had percep- 

 tion enough, if ever he had seen one good case of pleuro- 

 pneumonia, to know another case, is doubted. The old lady 

 could not be made to believe her son's story of the wonders of 

 the sea, though told with moderation ; but when he told her of 

 the great gold chariot-wheel which they fished out of the Red 

 Sea, stamped with Pharaoh's name, she could believe, because 

 she had read in the Scripture about its being lost there. There 

 is still another fact in relation to the Deer Island stock worthy 

 of notice, viz. : seven of the ten cows killed by the Commis- 

 sioners, and found diseased, had passed from the acute to the 

 chronic stage of the disease without Mr. Payson's notice, either 

 by the falling off in their milk, or in any other way ; a fact 

 which carries additional weight when we remember that Mr. 

 Payson is not one of those " guess so " farmers, but one who 

 takes just pride in pointing out each cow in his herd, and refer- 

 ring to his memoranda, states the exact amount of milk she 

 gave in any given month, and the butter made therefrom. One 

 may well ask how can it be that cows affected with pleuro- 

 pneumonia are worthless for milk, when such a man had it in 

 his herd for months, and never dreamed but that he had a 

 healthy herd ? 



My associates, in their Report, mention the fact that an experi- 

 ment is in progress to test certain points in reference to the 

 effect of pleuro-pneumonia in cows, and without giving any 

 particulars in relation to the progress of the experiment, inti- 

 mated that at some future day all the facts shall be made 

 known. It seems to me proper that the facts thus far developed 

 should be reported, and I shall therefore venture to give such 

 as have come to my knowledge. 



About tlie first of July two cows were brought from Smith's 

 herd, in Ashby, to Newtonville, and placed in a barn which had 

 been previously selected as a suitable place to try the experi- 

 ment. To all appearance this barn is in a healthy locality, and 

 unless tlie confinement to which the cows were subjected be 

 objected to, I cannot see why it was not a good place for the 

 trial. On the eighth of the same month four cows were 

 brought from Maine, and immediately after their arrival, while 

 in that state of exhaustion which the journey would produce, 

 one of them was tied in a stall between the two sick cows, for 



