SECRETARY'S REPORT. 9 



millions would be lost in a business whose profits are counted by units ; 

 to say that fear and despair would take the place of hope and security, is 

 to tell but half the story. For in our very homes with the nourishment 

 upon which our lives depend, we should daily bring the seeds of disease 

 and decay. Let those who would charge the Commissioners with 

 recklessness of animal life, remember this, and know that when the task 

 of extermination is abandoned in despair, if abandoned it is, a rich and 

 prosperous country is delivered over to blight and a curse ; to the 

 " pestilence which walketh in darkness, and to the destruction which 

 wasteth at noonday." 



That this is no exaggerated picture, let the present condition of the towns 

 and farms already visited by the disease bear witness. Stripped of the 

 vital force which gave existence to their agriculture, they present the 

 sad and mournful picture which nature always spreads over the deserted 

 haunts of man. Farming without cattle — a ship without sails, a mill 

 without machinery, a city without inhabitants, the world without man. 

 Of those held in suspense, too, the condition is scarcely less wretched ; 

 wift a prospect before them of a constant struggle against disease, in 

 which the expense and risk of cattle-husbandry are increased a hundred 

 fold, and the present safety and vigor of health are exchanged for an 

 enfeebled condition. 



In discharging their duty, the Commissioners desire the aid and 

 counsel of those interested in agriculture. With a very few exceptions, 

 they have found the farmers immediately aflfected by the disease, prompt 

 to act in its suppression, and ready to impart any information necessary 

 to a thorough accomplishment of the work. The advice and sympathy 

 of many of the agricultural societies have been given through their 

 agents who have visited the spot. Liberal contributions have been made 

 to a guaranty fund, to provide against any delinquency which it seems 

 impossible should occur in the action of any future legislature toward 

 compensating the sufferers from this terrible calamity. 



It seems proper, that, in addition to this, the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture should make such I'ecommendations as may prevent the progress of 

 the disease, and should sustain the Commissioners by all means in their 

 power. It is highly important that suggestions should be made to the 

 several societies with regard to suspending their exhibitions of cattle 

 the coming autumn ; and that an effort should be made to induce each 

 society to relinquish its annual appropriation from the State, for the 

 purpose of rendering the financial burden as light as possible. 



It is for these and other reasons that the Commissioners have called 

 the attention of the Board to the subject, with the assurance that their 

 call will not be in vain, and with the belief that no subject has been 



