SECRETARY'S REPORT. 25 



and which, in spite of unkindly influences, has brought farming 

 to a high degree of excellence. Our horses compare well with 

 any on earth. Our cattle, as I have said, are not easily sur- 

 passed. In sheep-husbandry, we have developed the foundation 

 of the great system of wool-growing, peculiarly our own, suited 

 to our wants, and customs, and soil and climate — an interest 

 which has at last won for itself proper consideration in the halls 

 of Congress. I think the Board need not be ashamed of its 

 efforts to brhig the farmers of New England together. 



And yet more. We have not forgotten the stand which the 

 Board of Agriculture took, some years ago, upon the question of 

 contagious diseases among cattle. The zeal with which the 

 members of the Board and the Secretary presented the difficul- 

 ties connected with that subject to the legislature, secured safety 

 to the country against an encroaching and formidable disease, 

 and through the aid of Governor Banks, established the policy 

 of extirpating an evil which no skill or power could cure or 

 control. Time has proved the wisdom of that course. For 

 now, while some among us still chide and ridicule the action of 

 the Board, a plague breaks out in, Europe, one great branch of 

 agriculture is threatened with destruction, and the authorities 

 there send to the Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts for a 

 detailed account of their proceedings, and for the report of the 

 commissioners before that session of the legislature called to 

 arrest, if possible, the disease, before it had ravaged the Com- 

 monwealth. No man has yet proved that the course then 

 pursued by the Board in that matter was wrong. But sound 

 judgment declares, and facts go to show, that the course of the 

 Board was right, and proper and worthy of emulation. 



While the Board has a right to congratulate itself on this act, 

 just now sanctioned and approved by high authority abroad, it 

 can turn with satisfaction to the labor performed by its various 

 members and the Secretary, aided by the liberality of the Com- 

 monwealth, for the investigation of agricultural subjects, and 

 the diffusion of knowledge among the people — knowledge emi- 

 nently practical, and drawn from the agricultural experience of 

 the Commonwealth. 



There are one or two questions which I trust will be l^rought 

 up for discussion before these meetings close, and will attract 

 the attention of the Board. The subject of sheep-husbandry 

 4* 



