476 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



It is possible infection took place through injuries from 

 coarse food, instead of through punctured wounds of the 

 skin, which Norgaard suggests may be the usual mode of 

 infection. 



The United States Bureau of Animal Industry furnishes 

 an inoculating outfit and an attenuated blackleg virus for the 

 protective inoculation of young cattle upon farms where 

 blackleg exists, and the results have been very gratifying in 

 diminishing the ravages of this disease. The Bureau of 

 Animal Industry about the first of September sent one of 

 these outfits to Mr. Herrick, upon application from the 

 Board of Cattle Commissioners. Mr. Herrick notified the 

 farmers of Hubbardston and vicinity that he was prepared 

 to furnish the protective inoculation, at their risk if they 

 desired it, but that occasionally an animal inoculated might 

 die. As the disease had commenced to subside by that 

 time, no one availed himself of this offer. It may be as 

 well that none of the farmers cared to avail themselves of 

 this opportunity, as there is a possibility that their pastures 

 might have been infected through this means with a diflerent 

 form of the disease than that already there, or even that true 

 blackleg and the disease occurring in Worcester County 

 may be totally distinct, and thus the pastures might have 

 become contaminated with another disease, in addition to 

 the one already there. 



The last two summers have been excessively dry, and the 

 summer of 1900 was one of not only great drought, but 

 great heat as well. It may be that these unusual meteoro- 

 logical conditions were conducive to the production and 

 development of a germ which will disappear under more 

 normal conditions, or it may be that these pastures may 

 become permanently infected. In the latter case, it will 

 become incumbent upon the Cattle Commissioners to devise 

 some method of prophylaxis for the protection of the young 

 cattle in these districts. 



Owing to the scarcity of forage during the last season, 

 the young animals may have been driven to eating coarse 

 grasses, sedges, briars .and similar material, which might 

 cause scratches and abrasions in the mouth and throat, by 

 which germs might gain access to deeper tissues and pro- 



