No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 3G1 



these records and the making of returns, the Board prepared 

 and caused to be printed all of these various forms, at the 

 expense of the Commonwealth, and furnished them without 

 charge to all the proper authorities. 



In 187G an act was passed providing for the appointments of 

 inspectors of provisions and animals intended for slaughter, 

 which law was substantially cmljodied in chapter 58 of the Pub- 

 lic Statutes. This was a permissive act, simply providing that 

 the mayor and aldermen of cities and the selectmen of towns 

 may annually appoint one or more persons, who may inspect 

 all provisions and animals intended for slaughter. Under this 

 act, which was taken advantage of by the cities and towns only 

 slightly, it w^as found to be impossible to organize any sys- 

 tematic inspection of the herds of cattle in the State, and in 

 1892 (chapters 195 and 400) the law was so amended as to pro- 

 vide that the same authorities " shall annually in the month of 

 April appoint one or more persons to be inspectors of provi- 

 sions and of animals intended for slaughter, or kept for the 

 production of milk." Under this latter act, hoAvever, no pen- 

 alty was provided for the fliilure of the cities and towns to make 

 the appointments required by the act, and it was found neces- 

 sary to again strengthen the law. Accordingly, in 1893 (chap- 

 ter 306) a penalty was provided for cities and towns failing to 

 appoint inspectors as required by law, and further, the inspectors 

 were, by this act and for the first time, brought under the partial 

 control of the Cattle Commissioners, by giving the Board the 

 right to make appointments where cities or towns failed to do 

 so, and the power to remove incompetent inspectors. 



This latter act was approved May 3, 1893, and immediately 

 after its passage this Board undertook to collect the names 

 and addresses of the various inspectors ; to instruct them 

 in their duties, in so far as they related to the matter of the 

 suppression of contagious diseases among the domestic animals ; 

 and to see that, so far as possible, animals intended for slaughter 

 or kept for the production of milk were inspected as thoroughly 

 as circumstances would permit. 



The first attempt to collect the names and address of the va- 

 rious inspectors was begun on May 12, 1893. U}) to about 

 Oct. 15, 1893, only about one-half of the cities and towns in the 

 Commonwealth had complied with this requirement ; so that 



