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quoted Wholesale. Extra creamery, 15 and 16 cents; firsts and extra firsts, 11 and 13 cents; New England dairy, 10 and 13 cents. Retail. Print, 25 cents; best tub, 23 cents; good tub, 15 and 18 cents.

JULY 1. - Butter market has ruled firm on fine grades during the week, with a pretty good trade. Consumption is running along at a full rate. Buyers for cold storage seem determined to hold off, if they cannot get what they want at low prices. Prices quoted: Wholesale. Extra creamery, 15 and 15 cents; firsts and extra firsts, 11 and 13 cents; New England dairy, 10 and 12 cents. Retail. Print, 25 cents; best tub, 23 cents; good tub, 15 and 18 cents.

AUGUST 1. - The condition shows a tendency to improve, although the general market is as yet dull and trade is flat, much of the receipts of ordinary grades going into cold storage. But for the best butter there is an improved demand, and the receipts are not large enough to supply it. The shrewdest judges claim. that the production of butter so far this year has been less than it was a year ago, and that there are from 25,000 to 30,000 fewer packages in cold storage. Prices quoted: Wholesale. Best New England creamery, 19 and 20 cents; extra firsts, 15 and 17 cents; choice New England dairy, 16 and 17 cents; common grades as to quality down as low as 6 cents. Retail. Print, 25 cents; best tub, 23 cents; good tub, 15 and 18 cents.

SEPTEMBER 1.-The advance still continues, but is getting to such a point that consumers are remonstrating, and, if it goes much higher, the inevitable reaction will follow. Prices quoted: Wholesale. Best New England creamery, 24 and 25 cents; fine dairy selections, 21 and 22 cents; average lots, 17 and 20 cents. Retail. Print, 30 and 33 cents; best tub, 28 and 30 cents; good tub, 18 and 22 cents.

OCTOBER 1.

Market in a good, healthy condition. Trade is inclined to be dull. The books of the chamber of commerce show that September receipts run ahead of last year; but the total receipts for the past five months are smaller than for the same time a year ago, a decrease of about 40,000 tubs, as compared with last season. Prices quoted: Wholesale. Wholesale. Best New England creamery, 24 and 25 cents; fine dairy selections, 19 and 21 cents; average lots, 16 and 18 cents. Retail. Print, 30 and 35 cents; best tub, 30 and 33 cents; good tub, 20 and 25 cents.

NOVEMBER 1.-Butter market in a firm, healthy condition. Fine fresh receipts are kept sold up, and, although the production is unusually large for the season, there is no accumulation in any grade. The prevailing opinion is that prices will go no lower,

and that the next change will be an upward one. Prices quoted : Wholesale. Best New England creamery, 25 and 26 cents; fine dairy selections, 20 and 22 cents. Retail. Print, 33 and 35 cents; best tub, 30 and 33 cents; good tub, 20 and 25 cents.

In referring to the milk industry, it is necessary to consider it from the Boston stand-point, as most of the surplus milk produced is bought by contractors and disposed of in said city. Last spring the contract agreed to by the committees of the milk contractors and the producers' union was that the price of milk in Boston for the six months commencing April 1, 1890, should be 32 cents per can of 81 quarts. The contractors agreed to pay the regular price for all milk for use as milk (or cream), and 5 per cent additional as a "margin;" but for the excess beyond this (known as "surplus milk") they were to pay its value for butter purposes, the price depending on the jobbing price of fresh creamery butter and the grading of prices of milk (owing to the varying conditions at different points) to be arranged between each route (or car) and its own contrac

tor.

For the six months commencing Oct. 1, 1890, it is thought the price will be 36 cents per can of 8 quarts. The producers want 38 cents, and offer to compromise on 37 cents; but the contractors say that they can get all the milk they need for 36 cents. The average freight on the milk that comes to Boston is about 10 cents per can. Taking out one cent per can for surplus, leaves 25 cents per can the winter average, and 21 cents the summer average at the car. This gives the producer on the average about 3 cents per quart in winter, and 2 cents in summer. From this must be deducted the cost of getting the milk to the car.* The retail price of milk in Boston is from 7 to 8 cents per quart from October 1 to April 1, and from 6 to 7 cents the rest of the year.

The following, condensed from the thirty-first annual report of the inspector of milk and vinegar of the city of Boston, 1889, will be of interest in this connection:

"Estimated number of quarts of milk for average daily consumption in 1889 was 207,493. It can be said that the

*Bulletin No. 2, June, 1890.

quality of the milk of Boston, as a whole, is very good. For the proper enforcement of a law to prevent the adulteration of milk, it is necessary that a certain fixed standard of quality shall be prescribed. In this Commonwealth the statute requires that, to be of good standard quality, milk must yield on analysis not more than 87 per cent of watery fluid, nor less than 13 per cent of milk solids, nor less than 9.75 per cent of milk solids exclusive of fat, except during the months of May and June, when it shall contain not less than 12 per cent of milk solids.

"The only methods of adulteration at all employed are the very simplest possible, and include skimming, watering and coloring. Milk, as purchased in Boston, has commonly passed through several hands: the producer, the contractor, the dealer who delivers from a wagon, and to a great extent the shop-keeper. The practice of adulteration is not confined to any class of dealers, and is carried on by individuals in any branch of the business, who are tempted to larger profits than they can justly earn; for a man is not necessarily honest because he is a producer, nor is he to be considered dishonest merely because he drives a milk wagon or sells milk over the counter. In several instances complaints against milkmen have been withdrawn, on satisfactory evidence that the dairies supplying them were at fault. Of store-keepers it may be said that many of them keep milk for sale merely as an accommodation to their customers, and not for profit, and that as a rule they deliver the milk as it is received. Of those who sell from wagons, the majority never tamper with their milk; many do occasionally, especially when the supply runs short; and others are habitually dishonest. The addition of coloring-matter to milk is done almost wholly after it leaves the hands of the producers. The materials used for this purpose are caramel (burnt sugar) and annotto."

CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT.

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In making their annual report, the Cattle Commissioners have nothing specially new to communicate. No contagious disease with which we were not previously familiar has attacked our domestic animals, though in one case it has apparently so increased as to require our official action. The State has been entirely free from certain diseases which in some former years have caused our people much alarm, and which have been suppressed at great expense. Glanders or farcy has always been here, and, so far as our observation can determine, will always remain, because of the importation of infected animals from other States. It is probable that our utmost efforts will only result in keeping the disease in abeyance, and the great mass of our equine stock free from its infection. During the year we have been notified of about ninety suspected cases; some of them proved to be catarrh or caries, but most were certainly glanders; about ten per cent of these were killed by the voluntary act of their owners, and the remainder by order of the Commissioners. This is a larger number than was destroyed by us the previous year, but is about the general average, and does not indicate a greater prevalence of the trouble. Not only horses and mules, but men, are susceptible to this contagion; and, so far as the medical faculty know, a case of it was never cured, which fact should cause it to be greatly feared, and lead all persons, whether owners of such stock or not, to heartily co-operate with the authorities in discovering and suppressing it. We find it in two forms, -acute and chronic; the latter making

the work of the commission tedious, difficult and unsatisfactory, for two reasons: first, because the possible presence of catarrh or caries makes a diagnosis somewhat uncertain, and a long isolation necessary, that development may change doubt to certainty; second, because a class of quacks claiming wonderful knowledge of diseases and medicines, and who have need of the avails of practice, pretend to be able to cure it permanently, and the owner of a valuable horse, hoping that such is the fact, is willing to grant him a trial, and earnestly pleads the stay of the law for that purpose. We have good reason to believe there are in the State well-educated veterinarians who are so unmindful of their duty, of the law and its penalties, that cases of the disease of which they become cognizant in the ordinary course of practice are not reported to the proper law officers.

We are yet frequently notified of supposed cases of hog cholera, a very few of which, however, are this disease. These cases are generally where the food given the animals is swill gathered in cities and large towns, against the use of which swine breeders have been repeatedly warned; in fact, all the cases of this disease which have come to our notice have been traced either directly or indirectly to the use of this food. For this reason, more than two years ago we issued a regulation to all our municipal officers, directing them to visit and examine all reported cases, and, if satisfied that the disease was present, to separate the sick animals from the healthy, and to cause strict isolation of the whole herd, to protect the public, and to take no further action. That regulation has not been rescinded, and officers should see that it is strictly enforced.

There has been no devastating or malignant contagion among the neat stock of the State, or any general deterioration of its health or usefulness. Annually for several years we have reported the existence of tuberculosis in the State, of our action respecting it; and on more than one occasion described in minute detail its lesions and general characteristics, have indicated its probable extent, and the direction of its dangerous tendencies. Careful observation during the last year fails to convince us that this disease is becoming

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