272 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of them having heen found badly diseased. The community 

 may now feel a degree of security which would not have existed 

 under any other circumstances, but the experience of the past 

 year shows the importance and necessity of rigid (juarantine 

 regulations with regard to the admission of foreign cattle. 

 Such regulations have existed for years in the kingdom of 

 Norway, and that country has enjoyed a perfect immunity from 

 this terrible scourge, till, during the past season, exception was 

 made by the government in favor of some Ayrshire cattle 

 imported for the farm of the Royal Agricultural College. 

 These cattle were landed in August, and carried the pleuro-pneu- 

 monia, so called, and on the 20th of December last, thirty, out 

 of the sixty head, had died or been killed, and others were still 

 diseased, an experience strikingly similar to our own. 



With the exception of the misfortune above alluded to, the 

 past year has been one of marked prosperity, most of the crops 

 of the farm being fully up to the average of years, while the 

 abundance and yield of fruits, wheat, barley, oats and rye, were 

 wholly unprecedented in the history of our agriculture. May 

 the enterprise, thrift and skill of the farmers of this Common- 

 wealth be always rewarded by similar generous harvests ! 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 

 Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 



Boston, January 23, 1861, 



