No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 285 



There were 107 letters sent and 56 replies received, many 

 of them very interesting. Of the 50 answering, there are 4 

 who state that their farms have not been restocked and 1 

 who has restocked only with dry cows, which he sells when 

 they come in, as he finds that it is useless to keep milch 

 cows, as the milk still tastes of disinfectants from his barn, 

 and he cannot find a market for it. The latter writer thinks 

 it would have been preferable to have had his barn burned 

 than to have disinfected it as it was done ; he says he thinks 

 one cow died last spring from chloride of lime poisoning. 

 One of the 4 who has not yet stocked up again has not done 

 so because the barn still smells so of disinfectants that he 

 does not care to put cattle in. 



About a dozen of the other writers intend to keep only 

 tested cattle ; some have taken especial pains to have their 

 animals tested ; others buy at Brighton, but have taken 

 pains to buy out-of-the-State cows tested there, and do not 

 intend to buy any that have not' been tested. 



The other 39 replies state that the writers have not taken 

 any particular pains to buy tested animals ; some have 

 bought cattle from without the State that were tested, and 

 then bought a few from neighbors that were not, — some of 

 which, if they should develop disease, will prove sources of 

 infection to the tested ones in time ; all state that they have 

 taken particular pains, however, to buy animals that are to 

 the best of their judgment healthy from the stand-point of a 

 careful physical examination. Several do not have any faith 

 in the tuberculin test, and a few have a strong prejudice 

 against it. Several are cow dealers, and state that they 

 cannot avoid occasionally getting a tuberculous cow in the 

 way of trade ; but that they have such animals kept away 

 from the rest, and notify the local inspector to quarantine 

 them, so that they may be appraised and killed by an agent 

 of the Cattle Bureau. 



The owners of a large milk farm in Westborough state 

 that they intend to keep only tested cattle, but when they 

 restocked it was impossible to buy cows from their neigh- 

 bors, subject to the test, for various reasons. One of them 

 writes as follows : — 



