SECRETARY'S UEPORT. 7 



and lowering, eighteen thousand, and the same enthusiasm has 

 been manifested at many of the smaller fairs. 



Another significant evidence of a greater spirit of inquiry in 

 the minds of farmers is the largely increased demand for the 

 reports of the State Board of Agriculture. With an edition of 

 ten thousand copies, double the number printed ten years ago, 

 it is wholly impossible to supply the call for them, and hardly 

 two months pass after tliey are ready for distribution before the 

 number is exhausted and the distribution is obliged to be 

 stopped. With very few exceptions, these reports now go into 

 the hands of practical farmers, and they are unquestionably 

 read by them to a far greater extent than formerly. 



But with these and other evidences of general prosperity, 

 enterprise and inquiry, I am sorry to be compelled to report 

 that that fatal and dangerous disease among our horned cattle, 

 commonly called pleuro-pneumonia, is still in existence, and 

 requires constant watching by a competent and vigilant 

 commission. The report of the Board of Commissioners on 

 Contagious Diseases among Cattle, is as follows : 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonweallh of Massa- 

 chusetts : 



In accordance with the law of 1860, relating to contagious 

 diseases among cattle, the following Report is respectfully 

 submitted : — 



April 20th. Charles P. Preston of Danvers, and E. F. Thayer 

 of (West) Newton, were appointed to fill the vacancies existing 

 in the Board of Cattle Commissioners. 



The Commissioners have been called to visit nineteen towns, 

 and to examine the cattle of thirty different herds during the 

 past eight months. In six only was the disease called pleuro- 

 pneumonia found to exist, viz. : in one herd in the towns 

 respectively of Lincoln, Ashby and Boxborough, in two herds 

 in Lexington, and in the herd belonging to the city of Boston at 

 Deer Island. 



A herd of cattle belonging to John P. Reed, of Lexington, 

 had been isolated, by order of the selectmen, and a few days 

 before May 1st was discharged by them from further isolation. 

 The cattle were carefully examined, and no disease was found 

 to exist among them. 



