SECRETARY'S REPORT. 19 



Many other subscriptions were made in different parts of the 

 State, amounting it is supposed, to $15,000 to $20,000. For- 

 tified and encouraged by these spontaneous expressions of 

 confidence, from that class most deeply interested, the Commis- 

 sioners continued their efforts until the twentieth of May, when 

 it became evident that the altered circumstances ^n which they 

 were placed, required a change of policy. The cattle were 

 now generally in the pastures, scattered far and wide, over 

 several towns, and numbering in all, more than a thousand 

 head, which had been more or less exposed to contact with 

 animals that were at least suspected. It seemed to the 

 Commissioners that the disease was nearly extirpated ; but 

 the danger that great numbers of cattle niig-ht have it in a 

 latent form, appeared, judging from experience, to be imminent. 

 It seemed unwise to kill animals on mere suspicion ; yet, if the 

 disease was to be entirely removed, not a single case must be 

 left from which it could be propagated. If these suspected 

 herds could be placed under restraint, be guarded and watched, 

 and if necessary, isolated until it would be fully determined 

 that they were free from the disease, a great many cattle might 

 be saved and yet the public made secure. 



Furthermore, the Commissioners had already exceeded the 

 appropriation by $15,000 ; and although the owners of cattle 

 killed had, as before stated, agreed to wait for compensation 

 until another session of the legislature, it would be to them a 

 very great hardship since they needed their pay in order to 

 re-stock their farms with horses to take the place of oxen for 

 labor ; and with sheep for their pastures instead of cows. 



Under these circumstances the Commissioners determined 

 to request the governor to call an extra session of the legisla- 

 ture. In this matter they received the co-operation of numer- 

 ous petitions from different towns in the Commonwealth, and 

 from the committee of the State Board of Agriculture. Until 

 the legislature should assemble and take action on the subject, 

 the Commissioners determined to take the responsibility to 

 cease the killing of any additional herds, and so far as in their 

 power, to secure the public from all further exposure, by such 

 isolation as they could effect in the absence of the requisite 

 legal authority. 



