8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



hereafter. But it is important tliat tlic ])ublic should know and appre- 

 ciate the full extent of the contagion. That the disease is peculiar to 

 itself there can be no doubt whatever. The name Pleuro-Pneumonia, 

 which lias been applied to it, and which in its ordinary acceptation 

 signifies inflammation occupying the pleura and lung at the same time, 

 does not by any means indicate its true character. The inflammatory 

 stage of the disease is hardly perceptible. But throughout the substance 

 of the lungs, and in the membrane covering them and lining the cavity 

 of the chest, there seems to have been diffused a morbific poison, under 

 the influence of which the vitality of the parts is threatened with speedy 

 destruction. The contagion is inevitable. Wherever an animal has 

 been exposed, in that animal the disease is sure to be found. Every 

 creature that went from Leonard Stoddard's herd carried the malady 

 with him, and imparted it wherever he went. In no case has an 

 animal been examined on account of its history, that the disease has 

 not been found in a greater or less degree. In whatever herd* the 

 disease exists, the animal that cai'ried it there can be pointed out, and 

 his exposure traced back to that wretched calf that went from Belmont 

 to North Brookfield. The disease is not epidemic. It is not found 

 except as the result of contagion. It has broken out in no spot without 

 a known and well authenticated cause. But it passes from animal to 

 animal in its deadly career, marking every victim that comes within its 

 fatal grasp as surely as the water of Tofana or the poison of Brinvilliers. 

 To keep the plague within its present limits, and to draw a cordon 

 around the infected district, is now the great object of the Commissioners 

 — a work which the nature of the disease renders practicable, and Avhich 

 nothing but public apathy and inaction will prevent. They have only 

 to ask that public sentiment Avill sustain them in staying the ravages of 

 an enemy which, once allowed toroamunrebuked, would strike a destruc- 

 tive blow at the great industry of our country — that industry upon which 

 we all depend, and whose security from panic and crisis is exemplified 

 by the everlasting hills upon which it rests. Standing upon the high 

 lands of the diseased region, the beholder can cast his eye over miles of 

 beautiful swelling pastures, the richest, by far, in our State, where roam 

 thousands of cattle, the solid wealth and active force in the agriculture 

 of an industrious people. The destroyer has laid its hand upon the very 

 heart of his victim. . In no section of our State could the consequences 

 of his reign be so disastrous as in that which he now threatens ; and in 

 none is the opportunity for his progress so great. The soul sickens at 

 the thought of his escape ; for should his sway become supreme, and 

 north and south, east and west, mountain and prairie and savannah, hill 

 and valley, own his sceptre, who can tell the consequences ? To say that 



