330 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



by the local inspectors of animals. Some of them were re- 

 leased after a simple examination l)y an agent of the Cattle 

 Bureau ; but in many cases it was necessary to inoculate 

 guinea [)igs with material taken from the nose, or sores on 

 the body, or to test them with mallein, before it could be 

 definitely decided that they were free from disease. The 

 increase over the preceding year in the number of cases 

 of glanders or farcy where the animals were killed is 123, 

 but this augmentation appears to have been in and around 

 Boston. There were 95 more horses killed in Boston, 41 

 more in Cambridge and 12 more in Chelsea, than in the pre- 

 vious year, — a total of 148 ; deducting this from 860 leaves 

 712, or 25 less than in 1902. This shows a slight decrease 

 for the State, outside of Boston, Cambridge and Chelsea. 



The most noticeable decrease has been in the Connecticut 

 valley, where the disease seems to have almost entirely dis- 

 appeared. There seems also to be a marked diminution in 

 Fall River, Brockton, Newton and Taunton, — cities where 

 in previous years there has been a considerable number of 

 cases of glanders or farcy. There has been a small outbreak 

 in Dedham and Westwood, involving about 15 horses, and 

 in Lowell there has been an increase of 12 cases over the 

 previous year. In Worcester it remains the same. Very 

 few animals with glanders are found in this State west of a 

 line drawn through Fitchburg and AYorcester. When cases 

 do occur, it is frecjucntl}^ due to a farmer buying a cheap 

 horse in Boston or Worcester to help in the spring and 

 summer's work, which is found later to be diseased, and in- 

 fects a few other horses before the outbreak is eradicated. 



The annual reports of the Massachusetts Cattle Commis- 

 sion, and of its successor, the Chief of the Cattle Bureau, 

 show an alarming prevalence of glanders and farcy in Massa- 

 chusetts, — greater than in any other Commonwealth in the 

 United States. At the same time, it is not impossible that 

 as serious a condition of affairs may exist in some of the great 

 cities of the country in other States, and that public atten- 

 tion is not called to it, for lack of a systematic effort to ob- 

 tain reports of the cases. 



The following table shows a list of the cases, or suspected 



