110 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 

 Onr correspondent in Wayne, Georgia, reports : 



Cholera haa been raging ever since October. In some neighborhoods it has killed 

 nearly all; one man lost all but 6 out of ITO ; another, all but 1 out of 93. All the 

 remedies applied have thus far failed to cure; but I believe that com boiled in wood 

 ashes cr potaeh is a preventive. Onco or twice a week I have fed my hogs on corn so 

 prepared, and while my neighbors' hogs have died at a rapid rate, I have not lost a 

 hog. The general loss is estimated at 50 per cent. 



The report from Simpson, Kentucky, stating that hogs in that section 

 are generally regarded as the most profitable farm-stock, adds : 



As what is known as cholera is the prevailing disease, I will give the experience«of 

 five or six good farmers in my neighborhood. A few years since we were induced to 

 believe that crude petroleum was a good thing to promote the health of stock of all 

 kinds, and especially of the pig. We use a common tin sprinkler, and occasionally 

 give them a thorough oiling. When not threatened with the disease, once in two or 

 three months is suflicient. Wo also put the petroleum on corn fed to them. The result 

 is that for five years not one who has practiced this has been troubled with diseased 

 hogs ; and that, too, when disease and death have surrounded us. These farmers keep 

 severally from 75 to 200 hogs. We are thojoughly convinced that petroleum is an 

 effectual preventive. 



A correspondent in Du Page, Illinois, reports that his hogs, in common 

 -with others in the locality, were attacked with cholera last September. 

 After about 20 of his best shoats had died ho gave the surviving a 

 plenty of charcoal in their slops, and it operated as an effectual cure. 

 This is confirmatory of the first of the following extracts from Indiana 

 reports : 



De Kalb : The best remedy is a mixture of charcoal and soda, given in bran, or any 

 other way the hogs can be induced to eat it. Decatur : The only remedy that has done 

 any good is turpentine in slops. As a prcA'cntive, a teaspoonful is given to each hog 

 twice a week ; as a cure, the same dose daily. Tippecanoe : I had a pair of very fine 

 BOWS aflected apparently with the worst form of the disease called cholera. They were 

 so reduced by purging that they could not stand. They wore cured by administering 

 large doses of soft soap. They seemed to crave it, and would eat it long after they refused 

 corn or the best of sweet milk. The recovery was jierfcct. This unexpected result 

 seems to sustain the theory of a neighbor, that worms in the intestines arc the cause of 

 the disease. 



Our correspondent in Pope, Elinois, reporting a loss of 30 percent, in 



the county, says : 



My hogs have not been affected with the disease for years. I have given them warm 

 soap suds once or twice per week. Whether this has been a i)revontive I will not say; 

 but the disease has prevailed in the herds of my neighbors. 



In Oakland, Michigan, " thumps," popularly credited with causing the 

 death of 10 per cent., is believed to be caused by undue heat and impure 

 air from close confinement in tight pens. From Tuscola, also, the report 

 states : " Sow after sow is losing her entire litter, and wo are unable to 

 ascertain the cause ; but I think one cause may be found in the fact that 

 a great many breeding-sows are kept in close pens, and so do not get 

 sufficient exercise." 



The report from Grundy, Illinois, expresses the opinion that pneumonia 

 results from penning hogs in such a way that, during cold nights, they 

 are allowed "to pile up one above another; " the consequence is that 

 those underneath, after becoming heated and getting into a state of 

 perspiration, rush out into the cold air. The same report states that a 

 mixture of copperas and sulphur, put in the swill, results in expelling 

 worms from the intestines and generally improving the physical condi- 

 tion of hogs. In Dallas, Iowa, the farmers who allow " too many hogs 

 to sleep together have suffered the heaviest losses;" and in Camden, 

 Missouri, " hogs that have had clean, roomy pens, pure water, and sound 

 grain have generally escaped disease," 



