THE TEXANS. 179 



"THE TEXAN CATTLE PLAGUE. The troublesome and dan- 

 gerous disease introduced occasionally among the cattle of Mis- 

 souri and Kentucky, by those driven from Texas, to which we 

 have heretofore referred, is now called by this name in our 

 "Western exchanges. The Farmers' Advertiser, (a periodical 

 just established at St. Louis, under the editorship of Dr. L. D. 

 Morse,) says that the Missouri Legislature, now convened, will 

 be called upon to enact some efficient measures to prevent the 

 introduction and spread of this infection: 



" ' We have seen a letter addressed to a friend, from a gentle- 

 man in South-west Missouri, which details his experience with 

 the cattle plague from its first introduction to the present 

 autumn the substance of which is, that there was no such dis- 

 ease known prior to the introduction of Texas cattle ; that up to 

 1860, he was a heavy loser annually by it. That from 1861 to 

 1865, the rebellion broke up the cattle trade from Texas. During 

 those years he lost not a single head, though a large dealer in 

 cattle all the time. That in the present year, soon after the first 

 appearance of Texas herds, the disease broke out again, and he 

 had lost upwards of 150 head during the season as many as 20 

 dying in a day. He recommends that the present law be so 

 amended, as to entirely prohibit the introduction of these cattle, 

 from the first of April to the first of October; and that from the 

 first of October to the first of April, there be no restriction. 



"'There are not sufficient data to determine how early in 

 autumn they can be permitted to come in with safety ; hut as 

 the disease this year broke out in the vicinity of St. Louis (at 

 Cheltenham,) late in October, it appears that the first of October 

 is too early by a month at least. The first victim was a fine 

 cow, bought out of a Texas drove; in the course of ten days, 

 seven other cows running in the same pasture took it and died. 

 On the 30th of October, we had the first white and killing frost; 

 since then there has been not a single case. It would then seem 



