152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



made worse, in an attempt to add too much law to law that 

 was already sufficient. 



For instance, when tuberculosis in cattle was first recog- 

 nized by the Commonwealth as one of the contagious diseases, 

 the law required the condemnation of the carcasses of all 

 cattle infected to any degree with this disease. A committee 

 of the Legislature was appointed in the spring of 1897 to 

 investigate the doings of the Cattle Commissioners, especially 

 the killing of certain cattle from Dracut, which had been 

 tested by private veterinarians employed by the owners. The 

 test was in some ways disappointing to the owners, as many 

 of the best-looking cows and largest milkers reacted, and 

 were condemned by the Cattle Commissioners. These ani- 

 mals were killed at Brighton in the spring of 1897, and a 

 board of experts, consisting of Drs. Theobald Smith, H. C. 

 Ernst, F. S. Billings, Geo. N. Kinnell and Chas. Wood, em- 

 ployed by the State, witnessed the autopsies. The greater 

 proportion of the animals were found to show some slight 

 local lesion that in no way impaired the food value, and only 

 a few were in a condition to make it necessary to destroy the 

 carcasses as unfit for human food. The result was that the 

 Legislature immediately passed an act that no one having 

 cattle tested with tuberculin could receive compensation from 

 the State for reacting animals uidess the testing was done by 

 the " Cattle Commissioners or their authorized agents acting 

 as such at the time of the test, and such testing must be sub- 

 ject to the supervision and control of the State Board of 

 Cattle Commissioners." The next year the Legislature passed 

 an act permitting the Cattle Commissioners to make rules 

 and regulations for the inspection of meat to conform to the 

 rules and regulations of the United States Bureau of Animal 

 Industry for the inspection of meat for export and interstate 

 commerce. When the Board of Cattle Commissioners was 

 abolished in the spring of 1902 and replaced by the Cattle 

 Bureau, the law creating the Cattle Bureau provided that the 

 Chief of the Cattle Bureau could issue these rules and regula- 

 tions provided for in section 7, chapter 90 of the Revised 

 Laws, subject to the approval of the Governor and Executive 

 Council. This was believed to be the policy of the Common- 



