90 BOxVRD OF AGRICULTURE. 



At a meeting of the Board of Agriculture lield at the State 

 House on the elcvcntli of December, 18G0, Mr. Sewall, in 

 behalf of the Committee appointed to cooperate with the Com- 

 missioners, submitted the following 



REPORT: 



The Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture at 

 the request of the Commissioners on the Cattle Disease, to 

 advise witli and assist said Commissioners in the discharge of 

 their duty, respectfully Report : — 



That immediately after their appointment they proceeded to 

 North Brookficld, in which place and its vicinity, the Commis- 

 sioners were then prosecuting their work, and advised with 

 them in relation to an application to His Excellency the Gov- 

 ernor of the Commonwealth to issue his summons for an extra 

 session of the legislature, recommending that measure under 

 the exigencies of the case. 



Tliat they subsequently made application to His Excellency 

 in behalf of said Commissioners, and also by their authority 

 visited several towns, to which they had been summoned to 

 investigate cases of disease or of apprehended exposure to it. 



That from time to time, as the necessities of the ease demand- 

 ed, they have been occupied in carrying out the purposes of 

 their appointment. And tliat of all their doings in connection 

 with, or in behalf of the Commissioners, a full report has been 

 transmitted to them to be communicated to the legislature, to 

 which report they beg leave to refer for more extended infor- 

 mation of the discharge of their duty. 



The Committee having had large opportunity to observe the 

 course pursued by the Commissioners, take pleasure in express- 

 ing the conviction, that to the late action of the legislature, 

 enlarging the powers of the Commissioners and the means at 

 . their disposal, followed by their own wise and energetic prose- 

 cution of a work attended with much difficulty and pain, is to 

 be ascribed the })robablc extermination of an evil of the most 

 threatening aspect to the interests of agriculture and the com- 

 mon welfare of the country. The judgment of the Commis- 

 sioners has been in some quarters disputed, their motives have 



