26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



August. She had been imported from Holland in 18")2. She 

 died in about a fortniglit. From that time, his cattle died 

 successively, until about the first of November, when he had 

 lost in all about thirty head. See Evidence, etc., page 75, 

 et srq., Extra Session, 1800. 



Although your Commissioners began their operations in 

 North Brookfield and New Braintree, they soon extended their 

 examinations to the herd at Belmont. They first visited that 

 place on the IGth of April, five days after their appointment. 

 Mr. Chenery expressed the belief " that all his animals were 

 now sound, or recovering ; for he had lost none for a long 

 time, and all seemed in a thriving state." The Commissioners, 

 from their experience in Worcester County, had a strong belief 

 that, however well Mr. Chenery's cattle might appear exter- 

 nally, an autopsy would present results similar to those 

 observed in other places, and accordingly three animals were 

 killed. Post-mortem examinations by Drs. Thayer, Dadd, and 

 George N. Bates, showed that all these animals were greatly 

 diseased. They presented the same general appearances with 

 the worst cases at North Brookfield, only of longer standing. 

 Though the Commissioners were thus confirmed in their opin- 

 ion, that the greater part of this herd were fatally diseased, they 

 took no measures for the disposal of them. The reasons for 

 this course were three. First, the cattle were in a safe and 

 isolated situation, and there was no danger of their commu- 

 nicating the infection. Second, many of ^Ir. Chenery's cattle 

 were valued by liim at very high prices, which, if allowed, would 

 absorb a great part of the very limited resources at the dis- 

 posal of the Commissioners. A third reason was, that the 

 imminently perilous condition of the herds in North Brookfield 

 and its vicinity, which were daily extending the infection, 

 required the constant and undivided attention of the Commis- 

 sioners and the surgeons. 



Under these circumstances, therefore, no steps were taken 

 for the disposal of Mr. Chenery's cattle, and no more of them 

 were killed, until the 2d of June, when, during the extra 

 session, two were slaughtered and examined, both of which 

 were found diseased. Soon after the enlargement of the Board 

 of Commissioners, a consultation was had with the Board 

 of Medical Examiners, appointed under the same Act, in regard 



