No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 469 



them. The results of the investigations do not show the 

 trouble to have been blackleg ; but, in view of the cases 

 elsewhere, it is not impossible that this disease was present 

 in these pastures, and that it had subsided when the agents 

 made their visits. 



The following correspondence is sufficiently explana- 

 tory : — 



Aug, 13, 1900. 

 Cattle Co7nmissione?-s, Boston, Mass. 



Dear Siks : — As I have been losing cattle for two weeks past, 

 five in all dying, I reported it to the cattle inspector of Becket, 

 Mass., as that is the town that I live in, but I got no satisfaction 

 from him, as he did not come to see them. It is reported around 

 here that it is a contagious disease that is causing them to drop 

 off. The last two died last Friday and were buried Saturday. 

 My next neighbor lost three in the same manner. 



1 live between Middlefield and Chester. Trusting that you will 

 give this your attention, and oblige me greatly. 



Yours very truly, A. T. Boyd. 



PiTTSFiELD, Mass., Aug. 17, 1900. 



Dear Dr. Peters: — In accordance with your instructions, I 

 went to Chester to-day and investigated the trouble among the 

 cattle on the pasture of Archibald T. Boyd, and have to report as 

 follows : — 



Five weeks ago there were in Boyd's pasture seventeen animals ; 

 of these, eleven two-year-old heifers and steers were the property 

 of Boyd, while six animals (a mature bull and five two-year-old 

 creatures) were owned by Mr. Farnham, the neighbor mentioned in 

 Boyd's letter. Five weeks ago one of Boyd's young cattle w^as 

 found dead in the pasture, and, as there had been a thunder storm 

 the day before, the cause of death was supposed to have been 

 lightning stroke. No more animals died until the latter part of 

 July and the first ten days in this month, during which time four 

 more of the young stock of Boyd and the bull belonging to Farn- 

 ham died, the last death having occurred Friday, August 10. On 

 August 6, Mr. Farnham removed his five young cattle from the 

 Boyd pasture and turned them into a lot further up the road. These 

 animals were not seen until the following Sunday, August 12, when 

 it was found that three were alive and two were dead. The con- 

 dition of the carcasses when found led the owner to think that the 

 animals probably died within one or two days from the time they 



