CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 471 



He said: "Farmers hereabouts generally make milk for the Baltimore 

 market, and procure their cows from among themselves ; but from the 

 time that grass comes up until late in the fall of the year some of them 

 are in the habit of feeding cattle ; that the cattle for this purpose are 

 generally bought at the ' scales' in Baltimore; that in this way, last 

 tall, Mr. Samuel Cover, of Silver Eun, this county, procured some stock 

 which, after having been on his place for a short time, developi^d disease 

 of some sort ; some died, and some that were sick got well. Also, a Mr. 

 Beacham, of Westminster, had had trouble of a similar nature for some 

 time past." In a general way he knew that the farmers hereabouts were 

 somewhat frightened about contagious pleuro-pneumonia. 



March 12. — Drove to the farm of Mr. Samuel Cover, above referred to, 

 at Silver Run, and found there three cases of chronic contagious pleuro- 

 pneumonia. Tliis gentleman stated that he had got the disease last fall 

 through some steers that came from Southwestern Virginia, but which 

 had stopped at the Baltimore stock-yards for some little time, at which 

 place he had bought them. Some four or five w eeks after he got them 

 home the disease broke out among them. He had at that time some 80 

 head of neat stock. Of these 15 were sick. ■\Mien the disease first 

 showed itself he put all the sick animals in a building by themselves, and 

 had all his stables thoroughly disinfected. This was kept up all the 

 time, and the places repeatedly whitewashed. In aU, 4 animals died, 2 

 of them the Baltimore steers ; the other 2 were cows which he had had 

 for some time. Mr. Cover further says that note when he gets cattle he 

 always pats them by themselves in a building entirely away from his 

 regular cow-stables, and hopes in this way to avoid anj- future out- 

 breaks among his herds. 



Eeturning to Baltimore on March 17, in company with Dr. Daniel Le 

 May, a veterinary surgeon, I visited a herd of milch cows kept at a 

 dairy in Woodbury, near Baltimore. Here we found 1 acute and 2 

 chronic cases of the plague. The man in charge said that he had got 

 through with the disease, from which he had suffered greatly, some two 

 months ago, by selling out all his sick animals. From here we went to 

 another large dairy in the same neighborhood. The gentlemanly owner 

 informed us that he had had none of the disease for some time; that his 

 plan was to buy often and sell often. In this way he found that he 

 could keep up his milking stock and keep rid of the disease. From here 

 we visited a near neighbor living on the direct road to the city. In an- 

 swer to questions this man said that he did not know if his neighbor 

 (the one from whom we had just come) called it having the disease or 

 not, but that he drove many a sick one past his house on his way to the 

 Baltimore market. He (our present informant) was free to say that he 

 followed this same practice himself, and had done so ever smce he lost 

 Ms first 8 animals. He supposed this was not right, but his neighbors 

 did it, and so he did. Summer was invariably the worst time there- 

 abouts. The next place visited was about 2 miles distant, and on a dif- 

 ferent road. The dairyman here had suffered greatly in the past, but 

 thought that now, by selling the sick ones, he had nearly rid himself of 

 the plague. 



Marcli 18. — ^We drove in several directions around the city atid found 

 the disease or its effects in all the herds except one that we visited. 



March 10. — T'^-day we examined a number of the cow-stables in the 

 city itself, in T^^hich many chronic and a few acute cases were found. 



March 23. — Went to Harford County, where the disease was reported 

 as existing is a number of different direetions. However, we concluded 



