200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



coiivenieut for reference. As the same, or very similar faults 

 extend over the whole, they are also valuable as a means of 

 comparison between town and town, and as such they are 

 worth being preserved for future use. 



THE CATTLE DISEASE. 



By a statement of the committee, on a preceding page, it will 

 be perceived that the alarming disease among cattle, commonly 

 called pleuro-pneumonia, has again appeared, during the past 

 year, in some of the towns in the eastern part of the State. 

 No one who candidly examines the history of its progress and 

 development can longer doubt its contagious and fatal character, 

 and it becomes those who are about to purchase stock to be 

 exceedingly cautious to ascertain its past history, while those 

 who own cattle would do well to keep them as strictly as pos- 

 sible from mingling with strange animals. The only perfect 

 safety is in isolation. 



The State has generously come forward again to attempt to 

 arrest the progress of this fearful scourge, but the efforts of 

 commissioners can be of little avail, without the cooperation of 

 individual owners of stock. It is believed that with prompt 

 and proper effort, the disease can be eradicated, but it will 

 require much time and care, and every owner of stock should 

 feel that he has a personal interest in such a result. 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 



Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 



Boston, January 22, 1862. 



