150 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



fertilizer bill has doubled three times in the last six years, and they are 

 already beginning to ship some commercial fertilizers into Iowa to help 

 ont the fields on the farms of the men who have not been keeping live 

 stock. A lot of these fellows are going to producing beef rather than go 

 into the dairy business, to get manure to put on these fields that are 

 growing thin and running out. 



I don't believe that under the circumstances there is likely to be any 

 over-production of beef here very soon, so that we w'ill knock the bot- 

 tom out of the market, considering the fact that there are so few beef 

 cattle in the western states — and in any other part of the United States, 

 for that matter. We are short on beef cattle all the way around. 



I am sure my time is up, and I want to thank you for the hearing that 

 has been given me. 



The President : Doctor J. I. Gibson, state veterinarian, is going 

 to give IS a lecture on the prevention of hog cholera, and how to 

 handle it in Iowa. 



PREVENTION AND CONTROL OP HOG CHOLERA. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Corn Beit Meat Producers' Associa- 

 tion: Mr. Wallace, your secretary, is to blame for getting me in this 

 position. At this time of year we are so busy that we haven't much time 

 to give to extras, and I have not been able to reduce a paper to writing. 

 I wdll try to give you a little talk along the line of control of hog cholera 

 and other diseases, which may be of some benefit. 



In order to successfully combat any contagious or transmissible disease, 

 you must have a system. You must know the nature of the virus or germ 

 of that disease, and by what means it is transmitted from one animal to 

 another. Now, we must first admit that we don't know what the germ 

 of hog cholera is; nobody has found it yet. We further realize that it is 

 one of the most minute germs, in that there is no filter paper fine enough 

 to prevent its passage in fluid through the paper. Apparently, no micro- 

 scope is able to reveal the germ. It is called the filterable germ; that is 

 all we know about it; and that name was given it because we found out 

 that the finest filter paper will not stop the flow of the hog cholera germ. 

 You know what a filter is in the drug store: a funnel-shape with a paper 

 similar to blotting paper — some fine and some coarse. 



Now, there is no use of my spending any time telling you about hog 

 cholera; you all know what it looks like, to your sorrow. You have all 

 read in the papers that last fall Professor Kennedy made a systematic 

 inquiry, covering the entire state, as to the existence of hog cholera and 

 the number of hogs that died in the various counties. He got reports 

 the latter part of November from eighty-five counties that had had 

 cholera in them. He also asked some of the best men in those counties to 

 gather the best information possible as to the loss and let him have it. 

 We all pay some attention to our crop reports and our weather reports 

 and statistics of that kind, and he undertook to gather this knowledge as 

 carefully as such statistics are gathered. A great number of counties 

 reported 400,000 loss, a number 300,000, and so on down the line. Then 



