I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 3S1 



from bulls with the shortest horns. The hornless is alto- 

 gether an artificial form, and may be developed in any breed. 

 Second, the Bos longifrons, or the small black or brown 

 Welsh and Scotch cattle, which are remarkable for their short 

 horns and the delicacy of their build. Third, the red and 

 white variegated cattle descended from the iirus, and which 

 have, on the whole, far larger horns. The large domestic cat- 

 tle of the urus type are represented in their ancient purity 

 by the Chillingham wild oxen (as generally called), which 

 were probably introduced by the English invaders of Roman 

 Britain, being unknown to that country during the Roman 

 occupation. The Bos longifrons (long-horns), on the other 

 hand, were the sole oxen which were domesticated in Great 

 Britain during the Roman occupation, and, in remote times, 

 were kept in herds by the users of bronze, and before that by 

 the users of polished stone. The present distribution of the 

 two breeds agrees almost exactly with the areas occupied by 

 the Celtic population and the German or Teutonic invaders. 

 Both the Bos longifrons and the urus were probably derived 

 from some country to the south and east of Europe, and w T ere 

 introduced by the herdsmen and farmers of the polished-stone 

 period, at a very remote antiquity. 12 A, Dec. 21, 1871, loo. 



REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT 



ON CATTLE DISEASES. 



A document which has been for some years in preparation, 

 and toward which much expectation has been directed by 

 agriculturists, has just appeared from the government press, 

 namely, the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture upon 

 the Diseases of Cattle in the United States. About the mid- 

 dle of June, 1868, a disease broke out at Cairo, Illinois, among 

 a number of Texas cattle, known as the Spanish fever, or the 

 Texas cattle disease. In consequence of the rapid extension 

 of this disease, very serious alarm was excited, and the serv- 

 ices of Professor John Gam see, a distinguished English vet- 



~ 7 O O 



erinarian, then in the United States, were secured by General 

 Capron, the Commissioner of Agriculture, for the purpose of 

 instituting a careful inquiry as to its cause, course, and meth- 

 ods of treatment. The professor immediately visited the in- 

 fected districts in Illinois, and in the spring of 1869 examined 

 that part of Texas on or near the Gulf coast, where the trans- 



