No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 451 



being diseased, the five upper ])ack molars loosened, a can- 

 cerous growth in the nasal cavity, and the enlarged sub- 

 maxillary lymphatic gland was due to a secondary cancerous 

 growth, instead of glanders. Such an animal is practically 

 worthless ; but, as the owner wanted an exorbitant price, 

 which the commission declined to pay, he has resorted to 

 the courts, where the damages will have to be assessed. 

 The commission does not deny that the horse was free from 

 a contagious disease, — it only refuses to pay more than the 

 animal was worth at the time of slaughter. 



Compared with the report of the previous year, tliere 

 appears to have been a decrease in Worcester and Spring- 

 field ; there is also less in the Merrimac valley than for- 

 merly. There was less in Clinton in 1900 than for two or 

 three years, the disease having practically disappeared 

 among the horses owned by the citizens of the town, the 

 horses killed in Clinton, Sterling and Boylston having been 

 in nearly every case the property of contractors employed 

 upon the metropolitan water works. There were more 

 cases found in Fall River in 1900 than in 1899, but the in- 

 crease may be partly due to a more efficient inspector having 

 been appointed for 1900 than in the previous year. There 

 has also been quite an outbreak in Fitchburg, 24 horses 

 having been killed there in 1900, against 9 in 1899. 



Aside from the increases referred to, the greatest and most 

 alarming has been in Boston and the surrounding towns, 

 Boston acting as a centre of infection, and the suiferers out- 

 side being in many cases farmers, milkmen, expressmen and 

 teamsters, whose business requires them to make long daily 

 trips from their homes to the city, their teams often having 

 to draw heavy loads both ways, hard work lowering the 

 horses' condition and making them more susceptible to dis- 

 ease. The nature of the work also leads to an extensive 

 use of the public watering troughs on the road. The loss 

 here falls very heavily, as the men who own these animals 

 are those who can very illy afford to lose their live stock. 



The past year was the first during which reports were 

 received from the Tenderers of the State throughout the 

 entire year ; and a portion of the increase in the number of 

 cases reported to the commission mi^st be credited to them, 



