22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



3d. It is evident that if a cow is attacked with the disease 

 when having a large flow of milk, the secretion will be partially 

 or wholly suspended, depending on the violence of the attack, 

 and the duration of the acute disease. 



4th. Three of the five cows became impregnated, the one 

 which escaped the disease having the oldest foetus. 



5th. From the foregoing, (and previous observation confirms 



the opinion,) it is evident that animals which have had an attack 



of pleuro-pneumonia will fatten readily, although considerable 



lung tissue has been lost. 



^ Respectfully submitted. 



E. F. Thayer, 



For the Commissioners. 

 December 27, 1865. 



It may be stated that the cattle plague, so called, now raging 

 so virulently in England and Scotland,, is quite different from 

 the disease commonly called pleuro-pneiimonia, which was 

 imported into this State from Holland in 1859. The period of 

 incubation is much shorter, being usually, as nearly as has' been 

 ascertained, only from eight to ten days, while that of pleuro- 

 pneumonia is irregular, but most commonly from forty to fifty 

 days. The symptoms are also quite different, for while the one 

 is an abdominal, the other is a lung disease. The fatality of the 

 former is often as high as eighty to ninety per cent., and cases 

 are by no means uncommon in England where it has swept off 

 every animal in the herd, while the absolute losses by death of 

 the latter may not exceed about thirty per cent. 



But while a disease so contagious and so destructive is raging 

 in several of the countries of Europe, the importance of contin- 

 uing the Board of Cattle Commissioners in' existence, in order to 

 be prepared for such an emergency as the outbreak of the plague 

 among our herds must be apparent — for when it is considered 

 that it may be introduced, not only by the importation of cattle, 

 which, happily, is now absolutely prohibited by a recent Act of 

 Congress, but also through hides, wool and other articles 

 brought in by commercial traffic — the possibility of its arrival 

 here cannot be regarded as chimerical. 



It is the duty of every one, and especially of the farming- 

 community, to guard against its introduction, and to take all 

 needed precautions against such a disaster. 



