SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VI. 233 



A few words about hog cholera and swine plague. There are fifty mil- 

 lion dollars' worth of swine in Iowa, one-eighth of the total value of live 

 Block in the United States within the State of Iowa. I have the informa- 

 tion from the live stock journals. Fifty million dollars is the valuation 

 of hogs. Now, if you figure the loss of 6 per cent, that means three mil- 

 lion dollars less to the hog raisers of Iowa every year. That is due prac- 

 tically to swine plague or hog cholera. There is not much difference be- 

 tween the two diseases. The swine plague in England is hog cholera in 

 this country. If it is in the intestines we call it cholera. They are nearly 

 always a mixed infection. We thought we had at one time discovered what 

 caused hog cholera. In the last two years it has been found out that it is 

 an invisible germ. We have to deal with it from a practical standpoint. 

 Suppose we have a loss of three million dollars from the hog raisers of 

 Iowa. The loss from tuberculosis is not a direct loss as far as the loss 

 of the life of the animal, but it is a loss inasmuch as an animal with 

 tuberculosis will consume more corn than an animal in a healthy condi- 

 tion. There are certain factors that will tend to produce hog cholera. It 

 has been argued that corn will do it. Corn will not produce tuberculosis. 

 It will produce a condition of the digestive tract by which the germ will 

 not be destroyed because of a lack of acidity in the stomach. The germ 

 slips by and passes into the intestines and causes what we know as hog 

 cholera. The toxine generated by the germ floats in the system and 

 affects the animal. How is it to be dealt with? In Canada they have a 

 plan of quarantining and slaughtering every herd in which there is swine 

 plague or hog cholera. They have that way of dealing with it in order 

 to suppress it, and that is the only way that they will ever be able to 

 extinguish swine plague and hog cholera. It is the only preventive. 

 Just like the foot and mouth disease that they had to stamp out by buying 

 up and slaughtering everything that was affected. If it breaks out again 

 that is the only practical way of getting rid of it. The loss of a few indi- 

 viduals does not mean much. It is the loss of the individuals that they 

 ■would gain in the time that they are affected. In order to suppress the 

 disease you must destroy it. It is the same thing with hog cholera and 

 swine plague in Canada. They have government inspectors that patrol 

 the State. When they find an outbreak they quarantine the herd, slaugh- 

 ter them, bury the animals and disinfect the pens. When they do this they 

 pay the owner two-thirds the valuation of the live stock both for diseased 

 and non-diseased animals. For a time they paid the owner for only the 

 diseased animals, but it did not work, and now they pay for everything. 

 In order to keep out swine plague and hog cholera from Canada they 

 have inaugurated a very stringent quarantine. Whether it is the right 

 plan or not is for you to decide, but it seems to me the best plan to destroy 

 the animals and reimburse the man. There is not one of you that would 

 take hog cholera home just for the fun of it. You are not responsible and 

 why should you suffer? It seems to me that the State should pay it. I 

 would be willing if I was a hog man to pay a little extra tax in order to 

 reimburse the man who may lose. Then after a while there would be no 

 hog cholera and there would be no extra expense. How much of that three 

 million dollars of loss would it take to have government inspection? 

 Take it out of politics entirely. If an inspector is in his position because 



