24 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



will result in the discovery of either a reiiietly for tliis terribly devas- 

 tatiug- disease, or establish such measures of a sanitary and preventive 

 character as will confine it to very limited localities. The disease has 

 proved more destructive than any malady heretofore known to this or 

 to any other class of domesticated animals in this or any other country. 

 It has prevailed in the IJnited States for nearly a quarter of a century, 

 and while, perhaps, it has not increased in fatality, the losses occasioned 

 through its instrumentality have increased in a like ratio with the in- 

 creased number of animals produced, until the aggregate now annually 

 reaches many millions of dollars. Careful returns from the correspond- 

 ents of the department show these losses to be at present from $15,000,000 

 to $20,000,000 annually. It is, therefore, not unusual to receive intelli- 

 gence from some of the large hog-growing localities in the West that the 

 losses in single counties will reach the large sum of from $50,000 to 

 - $80,000, and in some instances as high as $150,000 in one season 

 through the devastating operations of this disease. Jfeither is it a 

 rare occurrence to be informed of the loss of an entire herd of thrifty 

 and apparently healthy hogs within thirty days after the malady has 

 made its appearance among them. The returns of the Statistical Divis- 

 ion of this department show the number of hogs produced last year at 

 upward of 32,000,000 head. This number is greatly in excess of any 

 other class of meat-producing animals reared in this country, and 

 shows the great necessity for the discovery of measures looking to 

 their protection from disease. Millions of dollars are involved in this 

 trade, but it is not alone the heavy losses annually sustained by our 

 farmers that should claim our attention in a consideration of the 

 subject. The fact of the existence of a terribly destructive disease 

 among the swine of this country has already reached many European 

 markets, and our salt and smoked meats have been prohibited entry 

 and sale at ports where the business has heretofore been remunera- 

 tive. While it has not been shown that the disease known as swine- 

 I)lague can be communicated to man, at least in a fatal tj'pe, yet no 

 diseased animal is fit for food, and it is a notorious fact that many 

 entire herds of swine are slaughtered as soon as the disease is discov- 

 ered to have made its appearance among them, and their meat placed 

 upon the market for sale and ultimate consumption. 



Equally alarming, and, unless effectual measures are at once adopted 

 to stay its further progress, equally disastrous to the material interests 

 of the country nuist inevitably prove the disease known as pleuro-pneu- 

 monia among cattle. In the early history of my management of the 

 afiairs of this department I called the attention both of the public and 

 of Congress to the fact of the existence of this dreaded and destructive 

 contagious disease in several of the Eastern seaboard States, and ex- 

 liressed the fear that it might be speedily transported to the great cattle 

 ranges of the West, where, when once located, it would be found impos- 

 sible to eradicate it. The agitation of the subject was continued until 



