STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 233 



Rancho Santa Marguerita, and these cattle have infected the trails, and 

 by that means the native cattle. 



At the request of Dr. Orme, of Los Angeles, I made a short inspection in 

 that city, and found it far from being in a satisfactory condition. I heard 

 complaints from some of the veterinary surgeons that glandered horses were 

 not destroyed as they should be. In company with Dr. Whittlery, V.S., 

 I visited Mr. W. W. Cato, on Anderson Street, Los Angeles, and found he 

 had lost three cows within one week, from what the doctor considers 

 southern fever, and in which I agree with him when the following facts 

 are taken into consideration: 



First — Scenton Bros, of the Orleans market ship in southern cattle. 



Second — Said cattle are unloaded at the railway yards, and driven ten 

 miles to Scenton Bros.' yards, by way of the river bottom. 



Third — Mr. W. W. Cato's cows grazed right on this bottom where these 

 cattle were driven. 



In view of these facts, and the scattered condition of the slaughter 

 houses in Los Angeles, and to prevent such contagion, the animals ought 

 to be unloaded in the slaughter yards, and said slaughter houses should 

 be all in one place, and not scattered, as is the case in Los Angeles and 

 San Diego. San Diego has the better facilities, as all the offal can be 

 taken out to sea and dumped, by means of a lighter. 



I now proceeded to Hanford, Tulare County, and on arrival I interviewed 

 Dr. J. A. Davidson, M.D. He said: "I examined some cattle two and a 

 half miles from here that were brought from Salinas Valley and put in a 

 field of alfalfa, and about thirty days ago they commenced dying, after 

 being about three weeks on the alfalfa." I next interviewed Mr. Motherall, 

 and he said the cattle came from the Salinas Valley, and in two weeks after 

 arrival began to die. On their way they passed through Polly & Heilbron's 

 ranch, where cattle have been dying this year in great numbers; but when 

 frost came the mortality ceased. He said: "I consider the disease to be 

 southern fever, as it was identical in symptoms, course, and post-mortem 

 lesions with what I have seen in Florida and Mississippi." 



I now went to Mr. Sanborn's, four miles from the city, and found E. J. 

 Tilton had lost nineteen head this year (1888); last year (1887), sixteen 

 head. He usually carries about forty head. This year they died about 

 the first of September, on the advent of some cattle from the Coast Range 

 in the month of August. The post-mortem lesions described by Mr. Tilton 

 correspond to those of southern fever. I now went to Mr. Sanborn's field 

 and made an autopsy on a cow which was killed in the morning, and found 

 nothing to indicate the acute stage of southern fever, but from the condi- 

 tion of the liver and gall-bladder, it was either commencing, or else recover- 

 ing from it. In the lungs I found the bronchial tubes full of the strongylus 

 micrurus, which causes parasitic bronchitis; and from the amount of ani- 

 mals coughing in the herd, I had no doubt that others were affected, and 

 told the boys what to give them. I now made an autopsy on a calf in the 

 same field, which had been dead two days, but as the weather was cool I 

 was able to get the lesions well defined, except where the post-mortem 

 staining was on the underside from gravitation. I found the lesions to be 

 those of southern fever. I also made a microscopical examination of the 

 spleen and liver by means of cover-glass specimens, but could not find any 

 signs of the bacillus of anthrax. Mr. Sanborn said: "I sold my hay to 

 Polly, Heilbron & Co., to be fed on my ranch, and they brought one thou- 

 sand four hundred head of cattle from their place, and about three days 

 after arrival they commenced to die, and about four hundred and fifty head 

 had died on the ranch before they left." From the evidence procured at 



