518 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



with the experimental evidence. The main difference seems to be 

 that the disease is more virulent and has a quicker course when 

 spread by natural means than artificial, — a condition which is 

 borne out by a study of other outbreaks as well. 



On July 25, Mr. Geo. Smith fed and watered a carload of cows 

 en rotite from New York State to Brighton, Mass., at West 

 Albany, in pen 16 D ; Mr. A. W. Baggs also fed and watered a 

 carload in pen 15 D, e?i roiite from New York State to Wilbraham, 

 Mass. I further find, on consulting notes furnished by the man- 

 agement of the West Albany stock yards, that pen 16 D was used 

 on July 11 and 18 by Mr. Smith. It is probable that pens 15 and 

 17 were also in use; indeed, the superintendent and others told 

 me that it was the custom to open all the pens of alley D between 

 market days, and permit cows to feed in them. 



On August 15, a carload (No. 23033, New York Central) of 

 cattle, consisting of twenty cows and three bulls, consigned to 

 New Haven under the name of E. D. Williams, were entered into 

 pen 16 D. Since no report of this stock has been made to Cattle 

 Commissioner Sprague of Connecticut, and inasmuch as it was 

 mixed stock, it is quite likely that the cattle were slaughtered in 

 New Haven. This is the only reasonable explanation of disease 

 not having broken out and being reported in this shipment. 



If the cows that went into pens 15 and 16 D on August 1 were 

 infected there, while other cows equally susceptible that went into 

 these pens on July 25 were not, it is apparent that the infection 

 became active at some period between these dates. On this sup- 

 position, we may be quite certain that the cattle ticks which were 

 found on the cows in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Albany were 

 hatched out, if in these pens, two or three days prior to August 1. 

 Since these ticks do not hatch out under the most favorable con- 

 ditions in less than three weeks, and under usual conditions in 

 from five to six weeks, it is evident that the ticks from which they 

 descended must have been dropped in these pens at from three to 

 six weeks earlier. Three weeks prior to August 1 is July 10, and 

 the latest date infection of pens 15 and 16 could have been 

 expected in order to produce the disease which killed the cattle 

 during the middle of August. Six weeks prior to August 1 is 

 June 19, and is within a few days of the earliest date that infec- 

 tion probably occurred ; for otherwise the cows put into these 

 pens July 25 should have been infected from the earlier-hatched 

 ticks. 



It has been quite impossible to get a concise history of the infec- 

 tion of these yards, yet sufficient has been learned to incline the 

 most sceptical to the belief that the difficulty lies in obtaining exact 



