No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 219 



ing section on the last day of the previous April failed to 

 make application for a license." A copy of all the sections 

 in the Revised Laws and subsequent acts relating to the 

 Cattle Commission or Cattle Bureau is annually sent to the 

 local board of health in each city and town in the State. 

 As the Chief of the Cattle Bureau succeeded the Cattle Com- 

 missioners, it would seem that these reports should continue 

 to be sent to him ; although the law is imperfect, as it is not 

 specific enough at present, and good lawyers would take the 

 position that, as the Board of Cattle Commissioners has been 

 al)olished, oiBcials in cities and towns cannot be compelled 

 to report to the Chief of the Cattle Bureau. The law is 

 defective, and should be amended if it is desiraljle to have it 

 operative. Under the provisions of this law, the following 

 cities and towns reported licensing slaughterhouses or packing 

 and canning establishments during the past year : Attlebor- 

 ough, Aulmrn, Belchertown, Beverly, Boylston, Cambridge, 

 Carlisle, Chicopee, Danvers, Dunstable, Hampden, Haverhill, 

 Holliston, Holyoke, Hudson, Lancaster, Leicester, Lexing- 

 ton, Lunenburg, Maynard, Merrimac, Montague, New Bed- 

 ford, North Attleborough, North Reading, Northampton, 

 Oxford, Palmer, Pembroke, Pittsfield, Princeton, Raynham, 

 Rockland, Russell, Sandisfield, Seekonk, Sherborn, Shrews- 

 bury, Southborough, Stoughton, Tisbiu-y, Topsfield, Town- 

 send, Wareham, Watertown, Weston, Westwood, Weymouth, 

 Will)rahani and Worthington, — a total of 50 cities and towns, 

 having; 117 licensed slauoliterhouses. 



To show how well the law is lived up to, the following 

 data, taken from the monthly bulletins of the State Board of 

 Health for June, September and November, furnish some 

 interesting information. In a report upon the conditions of 

 the slauofhterhouses of the Commonwealth in the three bul- 

 letins referred to, it is stated in the September "Bulletin" 

 that : "So nmch public interest was shown in the result of 

 the examination of all the large and a small number of the 

 small slaughtering houses, as published in the June ' Bul- 

 letin,' and so many questions were asked, particularl}^ with 

 reference to the geographical distribution of the smaller 

 establishments, which were reported upon unfavorably and 



