Stvine Growers' Association. 303 



any illness, and all affected animals should be promptly removed 

 for further observation and treatment to an isolated hospital sec- 

 tion in charge of the official veterinarian of the fair. Such hos- 

 pital section should be so arranged as to shut it off from access to 

 all except the officials, and the owner of the sick animals. 



STOCK YARDS SANITATION. 



We should confidently expect that at no very distant time, the 

 large and small stock yards will be kept free from cholera infec- 

 tion, so that stock hogs may be purchased at said yards at any 

 season, for stocking up the farms, which have an abundance of 

 feed, but are short on hogs. At present, the great stock yards 

 are considered to be permanently infected with cholera, and hogs 

 that enter are not permitted to be shipped out, but are sold for 

 immediate slaughter, no matter how unfit they are in weight and 

 condition, for packing purposes. 



Stock hogs can, however, be purchased in the interior of the 

 State, and collected in the local stock yards of the towns and vil- 

 lages, and shipped to distant parts of the State. These small yards 

 are scarcely less dangerous than the large stock yards of the 

 great packing centers; and some of them are, no doubt, more dan- 

 gerous, as they have dirt floors and have been collecting cholera 

 infection for many years. In many of these yards no attempt at 

 disinfection has ever been made. Such yards are a menace to a 

 farming community, as points for distributing cholera infection. 

 The cost of paving these small yards with non-porous brick or 

 rough concrete, and providing hydrants and hose so that they can 

 be kept in a clean, sanitary condition, would not be excessive. 

 The saving to the farmers in a season or two would more than 

 pay the cost. It would improve the business of these yards, and 

 the railroads to maintain sanitary stock yards in the small towns, 

 especially in sections where many hogs are sold as "stockers," to 

 be shipped to other sections where corn is the principal crop, and 

 where numbers of hogs must be bought for feeding. 



The local trade among farmers would also be stimulated, since 

 there is a real need of clean, sanitary stock yards where farmers 

 can bring their surplus stock hogs, that are unfit for shipment to 

 the large markets, but are needed by other farmers of that com- 

 munity who would readily buy, if it were safe to take pigs to their 

 farms from the stock yards. 



The maintenance of clean stock yards would lessen to a con- 



