172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. MooKE of New Braintree. I do not know but we 

 have got all the law we can get, but we have laws that com- 

 pel us to keep our cattle on our own premises, and if dogs 

 are property, if they are farm stock, why should not their 

 owners keep them on their own premises ? Give us a law 

 that will do that. If they are kept on the premises of the 

 owner, unless the owner or some one is with them, then 

 our sheep are safe ; we can raise sheep, and it will be an 

 industry worth having in Massachusetts. 



Secretary Russell. I have been intrusted by the Board 

 of Agriculture for seven years with the advocacy of whatever 

 they wanted to obtain from the Legislature, and I have found 

 out to my satisfaction one thing, that you have to go be- 

 fore legislatures with propositions that they will grant. 

 There is no use going before the Legislature year after year 

 and pleading, as I have done, for laws that do not meet the 

 views of the men Avho are asked to make them. They will 

 report against you, and will not allow your proposition to go 

 before the House or Senate ; or, if it goes before the House 

 or Senate, you will be ignominiously defeated there. Mr. 

 Potter, who has spoken here this morning, was Chaii-man 

 of the Committee on Agriculture three years ago, I think, 

 and we ijot throuo:h him some matters before the Leg-islature 

 that were very important to the farmers, and they were ably 

 advocated upon the floor of the House, but when presented in 

 the Senate we were defeated. jNIr. Grinnell says I said we 

 have got law enough. I said, we have got all the law we can 

 get. You cannot induce our Legislature to make a law put- 

 tinsr dosrs under the same restrictions as other domestic ani- 

 mals. We have tried it over and over again. As the law 

 stands now, I think it is fairly constituted, and it pays us all 

 the damages, at least, that we suffer. As to Mr. West's 

 complaint that he cannot get from the County Commission- 

 ers — 



Mr. West. No, sir, I did not say I could not; I say 

 that is the trouble in some parts of the Commonwealth. I 

 don't say it is the trouble with me ; I always get all I ask. 



Secretary Russell. You get all you ask, I get all I ask, 

 and other men get all they ask, so that your complaint is 

 not well founded. 



