FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART III. 185 



condition, keen investigation of the results of feeds, cares of environment 

 and a string of collateral influences and treatments that will make themselves 

 plain to every thinking man. Ancient alchemists and scientists spent their 

 time in vain attempts to extract gold from base metals and to discover the 

 elixir of life. By the modern order of things men make gold by looking 

 after the little things. 



The careful and intelligent care of the herd will in most cases forestall loss 

 by disease. Keep hogs clean and they will keep well in nineteen cases out 

 ot twenty. The twentieth case will be cholera. Only one case of disease in 

 twenty is cholera. If the cholera germ comes they will have cholera. I 

 have had experience with some cholera cures and observation of many and 

 none are of value. 



1 do not believe in all corn or all protein. Corn is a good feed. Oats, 

 wheat and grass are valuable. A nig may either be pushed or starved for 

 the first six months so much as to make it unprofitable for a feeder at any 

 time afterward. Flesh is not always an evidence of health. Keep hogs 

 clean inside. Worms are the greatest enemy of the hog. Keep them clear 

 from lice and mange. You can not improve the animal without the forcing 

 process, and this calls for looking more closely after the health. A perfect 

 knowledge of any animal takes away chances of disease except in epidemic 

 form. In nineteen cases out of twenty loss is due to ignorance. I do not 

 believe it possible to so feed the hog as to make it proof against every dis- 

 ease. The difficulty in the treatment of swine diseases arises from the con- 

 fusion of symptoms. At times there may seem to be every symptom of 

 cholera when the disease really does not exist. Good health at time of 

 attack by cholera may reduce the proportion of loss. I think with good 

 nursing I can save 35 per cent of those affected. 



This brought out Doctor Gay of the veterinary department at 

 Ames, who gave as much information on the subject as has ever 

 been presented at these meetings in the same number of words. 

 Briefly he outlined the difference between cholera and swine 

 plague. Cholera is a blood disease affecting the liver and 

 intestines, and being closely allied to typhoid fever in the human 

 family Swine plague is a lung disease, and similar to pneu- 

 monia. He stated that the bureau at Washington, which was 

 the most extensive as well as the best equipped of its kind in 

 the world, had made a careful, extended and elaborate study of 

 these diseases in all their forms and under many conditions and 

 circumstances, and yet, with all these advantages and with 

 every particle of known information on the subject at their com- 

 mand, they were unable to offer any treatment that would cure. 

 The researches of science could only offer preventive remedies. 

 These are quarantine and a general healthful condition. Keep 

 away from the yards all who may have any chance of carrying 

 disease. 



