80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



• 



one of the latter's cattle sickened, and afterwards others, till 

 eight out of twenty-two died, and many more were sick. 



Tlicn the disease makes its appearance in Alden 13. Woodis' 

 barn with a yoke of sick oxen from Stoddard's, kept there for 

 Stoddard to haul lumber. In twenty-one days one of Woodis' 

 animals is attacked, and then others, till many -were sick and 

 four died, in the space of two months. 



Then the disease appears in C. P. Huntington's herd, in an 

 opposite direction and over several other herds, in a cow from 

 Stoddard's, which soon died. In thirty-six days after tlie illness 

 of the Stoddard cow, one of Huntington's was attacked, and 

 afterwards others, till eiglit died in quick succession. 



Here ends the history of the six herds, about the disease of 

 which no one doubts. The time between the exposure and the 

 appearance of the disease in a healthy herd corresponds in all 

 the herds, as nearly as in most any other contagious diseases. 

 The post mortem examinations show conclusively that it is the 

 same disease, affecting the same organs in the same general 

 way. No herd in the neighborhood, or in any other part of the 

 Commonwealth, as far as is known, has been invaded by a 

 disease, which affected almost every animal and destroyed nearly 

 30 per cent., unless they have been exposed to animals whose 

 disease can be traced in a direct line to the Holland cows. By 

 slauglitering these diseased herds, its extension was at once 

 prevented. 



After w^cighing carefully all the evidence that can be obtained, 

 we are forced to conclude that this is a contagious disease, and 

 all legislation should be based upon that understanding until 

 future developments show the contrary. 



1st. The fact, that Mr. Curtis Stoddard's cattle did not take 

 the disease, or those that did not go into his father's herd, (of 

 them we can tell nothing,) may perliaps be accounted for by 

 the calf standing beside a passage, the two ends of which had 

 two large doors, large enough for a cart and oxen to pass 

 through, which doors usually were left open in the summer. 



2d. Why the "big team" and Wm. F. Doane's herd did not 

 take it of the Stoddard oxen, can be accounted for only by 

 believing that tliese oxen had probably passed the propagating 

 period. If it be asked why its contagious property was not 

 shown in many herds pronounced diseased, we can only answer, 



