218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the Cattle Bureau is organized ; a suitable system of inspec- 

 tion of milk and dairy products and inspection of premises 

 where milk is produced, which is amply provided for by the 

 dual powers vested in the State Board of Health and the 

 Dairy Bureau of the State Board of Agriculture ; and a sys- 

 tem of inspection of animals at the time of slaughter, inspec- 

 tion of slaughterhouses and meats. The latter portion of 

 this work in this State is far from ideal, outside of the large 

 slaughtering and packing establishments doing an interstate 

 and export business, which come under the supervision and 

 control of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United 

 Stiites Department of Agriculture. 



While there is ample law on paper providing for the licens- 

 ing of slaughterhouses, inspection of animals at the time of 

 slaughter, stamping carcasses of animals as fit for food, and 

 prohibiting the sale of meat from diseased animals and the 

 veal from calves under four weeks old, as a matter of fact, 

 the law does not amount to anything, as its enforcement is 

 entirely in the hands of the local boards of health ; and the 

 State of Massachusetts never will have a system of meat and 

 slaughterhouse inspection worthy of a civilized community 

 until the enforcement of the law and the supervision of its 

 details is placed in the hands of some strong competent cen- 

 tral authority. In most of the larger cities and towns where 

 there is a pretence made of inspecting animals at the time 

 of slaughter, and of inspecting meats, the inspectors are in 

 many instances under the baneful influence of local politics, 

 and in many of the smaller places the inspection is so lax as 

 to practically amount to nothing. 



The State law has a provision which seems to be intended 

 to make some information availa1)le as to the number of 

 licensed slaughterhouses in the Commonwealth, as section 

 100 of chapter 75 of the Revised Laws provides that the 

 licensing board or officers in each city or town "shall annu- 

 ally, on or before the first day of June, send to the board 

 of cattle commissioners a copy of every application made to 

 them under the provisions of the preceding section and their 

 action thereon, and a list of all persons Avitli their addresses, 

 who although engaged in the business named in the preced- 



