120 



From Califoiuia tlie fitatements arc veiy cuntlictiug, but their general 

 tenor i.s much less favorable than from other part:* of the West, ay is 

 itidicated by the follov/iug- extracts from county reports : San I)iego, 

 '^ Wintered badly ; very poor in January ; Stanislaus, " Poorer than ever 

 before; loss by starvation 5 per cent. 5" Del IsTorte, "Splendid;" So- 

 noma, " Very poor ; -winter severe ;" Toulumne, " Above average ; mild 

 •winter;" San Bernardino, "Poor; food cut short by drought," «S;c. 



DISEASES OF FARM ANIMALS 



Disease has not cut off an unusual number of liirm animals during 

 the past year. Where cattle are most valuable, whatever the rigors of 

 the climate or local scarcity of feed, the loss by disease is comparatively 

 small, by reason of the care which is found by long and bitter expe- 

 rience to be profitable. A large proportion of the losse!5 reported is 

 the result of neglect, exposure, au(l insufficient or, innutritions pastur- 

 age or other feed. Some mortality and much reduction of tiesh result 

 from the inhumane practices of drovers, with the aid or abetting of 

 transportation companies. Several deaths are reported at Alleghany 

 City, resulting from the barbarous practice of stuffing animals with 

 salted feed to induce them to drink largely, for the purpose of making 

 good upon the scales the depreciation in weight occasioned by the depri- 

 vation and suffering of the passage by rail. The occurrence of "mur- 

 rain," "liollow horn," and diseases reported by A-arious meaningless 

 names so common in the Southern States, where cattle are left to the 

 tender mercies of a. rigorous winter and dead woody stalks of coarse 

 grasses, might be avoided in a large measure by adequate attention to 

 Jiecessary supplies and protection. 



The rigors of the past winter have proved conclusively the necessity 

 of protection, not only in the more northern of the Southern States, 

 but in Texas, v/here large numbers of cattle, estimated variously at 

 100,000 to 200,000 head, have succumbed to the combined agencies of 

 cold and starvation. The i^retense that shelter is unnecessary on the 

 elevated plains of Colorado and Wyoming is also exploded, large losses, 

 cs])ecially of Texas cattle, having occurred during the past winter. It 

 is true that small herds, and in some cases large ones, have been shel- 

 tered in the caiions and in the lee of banks of streams, and wintered 

 v;ith little loss; but it is unmerciful and untrue to assert that no provi- 

 sion for shelter is or will be necessary in those elevated pasture-grounds 

 of the plains and liocky Mountains. 



Horses have suffered less than in some previous years. Cases of the 

 various forms of disease reported have generally been isolated. 



The details concerning diseases of the several species of domestic an 

 imals will be given under separate heads, and will convey an idea of the 

 comparative prevalence of each form of disease. 



DISEASES OF HORSES. 



Ll^ng fever. — Horses have been comparatively free from this disease 

 throughout the country. Several fatal cases are reported from Aroos- 

 took County, Maine. The animals w(fre at first affected with what 

 appeared to be a violent cold, soon followed by prostration and death. 

 Franklin County, Vermont, reports two deaths from tliis cause. A -few 

 fatal cases are also reported I'rom Cltest^n- County, Pennsylvania, and 



