470 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



were removed from the Boyd pasture and put into the new one ; 

 further, Boyd thinks they were sick before they were taken from 

 his pasture. 



August 10 all the remaining cattle were taken out of the Boyd 

 pasture, since when there have been no more deaths, and all the 

 animals are noticeably improving. 



As to the pasture, the land where the seventeen animals had 

 been summering comprises about twenty-four acres, and is of ob- 

 long shape, about two-thirds of it open and comparatively level, 

 while one-third is partly wooded and partly brush, sloping down 

 into a lake. The whole is extremely rough and barren. Of the 

 actual surface of the open land, at least one-third is rock and 

 stone, and as I saw it to-day, after having been vacated of stock 

 for a week and after our recent rains, there is positively hardly a 

 spear of grass that an animal could pull, excepting in a few hollow 

 places where there is rank vegetation which the cattle seem to have 

 entirely refused. The wooded and scrub part bordering the lake 

 bears a few tall trees of maple, hemlock and black pine, with a 

 very dense undergrqwth of alders, wild rhododendron and laurel, 

 and more especially the latter. Of distinctly poisonous vegetables 

 or trees I did not recognize any. 



The last of the dead animals having been buried for over a 

 week, and being described as having been in a bad state of decom- 

 position before burial, I did not think a post-mortem examination 

 under the circumstances would be of any value, and consequently 

 I did not exhume any of them. 



As to the nature and cause of the trouble, I am of the opinion 

 that it is all a question of insufficient pasture. The land has 

 never been under cultivation, and the vegetation, in addition to 

 being wild, would at the best be very scanty. Considering the 

 nature of the land, it was overstocked, and this is more especially 

 true when we consider the prolonged period of extremely hot and 

 dry weather which we had until ten days ago. The result was 

 that two-thirds of the available surface was absolutely devoid of 

 anything the animals could eat. The only thing left for them was 

 the coarse, indigestible brush around the margin of the lake, and 

 this, in my opinion, acted as an irritant, causing inflammation of 

 the stomach and resulting in death. The symptoms described 

 would bear out this idea, the animals being noticed dull and walk- 

 ing with a staggering gait one day, and found dead soon after, 

 usually within a day. I would say that towards the north end 

 of the lake was the part where nearly all the dead animals were 

 found, and, judging from the way the ground was tramped and 



