l68 MISSOL'KI A(JKICLLTUKAL KEl'OK'l . 



attack tliem. but sinvj.ly as a protective measure to guard against 

 the possibility of insect ravages. The same men that become loo 

 progressive might be induced to do the same thing with their cattle, 

 i. e., inoculate them against various infectious diseases. As a result 

 there would be this possibilitj of introducing virulent organisms into 

 a community and this is the point I wish to emphasize. 



1 will say a word about the vaccine for hog cholera. We have a 

 disease in hog cholera which is not suitable to the use of any anti- 

 toxin, nor is it suitable to the method of exterminating such as v.-e 

 use in tuberculosis and glanders. We cannot use these methods with 

 hog cholera, and the only thing we have to rely upon is a vaccine. 

 The demand for hog cholera vaccine has been so great that all ovtr 

 this country companies have been putting out a vaccine against hog 

 cholera, and every year there is some new concern organized for this 

 purpose, but so far all have proven failures. Some of them will sell 

 for a short time — a year or two — and people who use them feel that 

 they have done some good. The probability is, the reason that in some 

 cases hog cholera vaccine works, is that some time before the man 

 sends for his vaccine the hogs are suffering from the disease, and those 

 which are attacked early in the season are the ones most susceptible ; 

 that is, the ones that produce the least amount of anti-toxin in their 

 bodies, which tends to check the disease. Those hogs that will pro- 

 duce the most anti-toxin in their bodies are the ones least susceptible 

 and the ones that take the disease last in the herd. Now, the owner 

 of the stock waits some time before he sends for this vaccine, then, 

 after he sends for it, it takes some time for it to get there, and, accord- 

 ing to the directions, it will take a week or two before the vaccine 

 begins to act, and by that time all the more susceptible hogs have been 

 killed ofif, leaving only those that are resistant to the disease and 

 would recover, anyway. In that w^ay the various hog cholera vac- 

 cines have been supposed to be useful, ])ut in truth we have not found 

 a hog cholera vaccine. Still, from the nature of the disease — from 

 the fact that there is immunity in hog cholera — it seems that there 

 ought to be a hog cholera vaccine. Many times in making an examina- 

 tion of a pig that has recovered from hog cholera, we find the hog 

 cholera organism present there, which would indicate that there is a 

 large amount of anti-toxin in the animal's body which stops the dis- 

 ease and prevents its further occurrence. So we have evidence that 

 in the future we will produce a hog cholera vaccine, and it is the plea 

 of the farmers of this countr}' that there be a vaccine produced for this 

 purpose. We are receiving in this department a great many letters 



