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Having escaped, in great measure, by the employment of active 

 and energetic means, the danger of one form of contagious cattle 

 disease, we are now exposed to another, which has proved equally 

 or even more dangerous and destructive. There is but too much 

 reason to fear that the cattle-plague, which is so rife and fatal in 

 some parts of Europe, will be transmitted to our shores. We 

 suggest, therefore, the expediency and necessity of immediate pe- 

 titions to Congress for the absolute prohibition of any importation 

 of foreign stock for the period of two years. The pure-blooded 

 animals now in the country are amply sufficient, if properly hus- 

 banded, to supply any enlargement of the different breeds which 

 can be desired. And no proper estimate of the evil that might 

 result from the importation of a single diseased herd, can be, for 

 a moment, set aside by any advantages possible to be derived 

 from the possession of any foreign breed, though it were perfectly 

 free from disease. 



The utility of keeping only pure-blooded animals of different 

 breeds at the several State Almshouses and other institutions of 

 the State, has been ably set forth in one of our public journals. 

 Similar reasons might be given for the advantage of having, in 

 every town where a public farm is connected with the almshouse, 

 pure-blooded animals, by which a pure or highly-graded stock 

 might be spread through the surrounding farms. BenejBt would 

 accrue therefrom to the whole town, and the cost of the animals 

 might, therefore, and with good reason, be a public one. 



In conclusion, we cannot forbear to refer to the happy change 

 in our national condition since our last report, and to the new and 

 brighter prospects which are now spread before the people. 

 Perhaps, by no portion of the community, as a class, had the 

 hardships and sufferings of the war been felt more deeply, or 

 borne with less repining, than by the farmers of Massachusetts. 

 Moved by their own patriotic ardor, or in compliance with consti- 

 tutional obligations to enter the public service ; or, in other in- 

 stances, lamenting the absence or the sacrifice of their sons in that 

 service ; oppressed by the accumulated burden of taxes ; by the 

 necessity for large reduction of the ordinary breadth of cultivation 

 in their farms, on account of the scarcity and exorbitant price of 

 labor ; sharing with others the many anxieties and griefs, and 

 frequent demands upon the best impulses of the heart, which 

 events have made familiar to all ; they have borne their full pro- 

 portion of the public sufferings, and contributed in like manner to 

 the public needs. But their sufferings have been borne with as 

 little complaint ; their charities have been contributed with as 

 much cheerfulness ; their patriotism has been displayed as un- 

 equivocally as can be said of any other class of men. And now 



