CATTLE. 89 



from one pasture to another if they are kept separate. This disease is communicated by 

 cattle traveling over the feeding grounds or roads that have been traversed by infected cattle, 

 but it is destroyed by the first frost that occurs. 



The best method of acclimating bulls in Texas that have been taken from the North, is 

 to select the most healthy calves, those of stout, robust frames, and the offspring of dams 

 and sires of strong constitution. Those dropped in the early spring are recommended as 

 most suitable for transportation about the first of December, when the danger of the Texan 

 fever is passed. 



These should be fed liberally with milk until September, and then be allowed a 

 suitable supply of wheat bran, crushed oats, corn leaves, grass or hay, with access at all 

 times to plenty of pure water to drink. It is also well to have them made gentle by 

 frequent handling, and broken to the halter, as they can by this means be so much more 

 easily managed when they arrive at their destination. A writer in Texas gives the following 

 directions in the National Live Stock Journal respecting the transportation and acclimation 

 of calves thus imported: 



&quot; The cars for transportation should be well bedded, and food for the entire trip transported 

 with the stock. Arrangements should also be made for a through trip when starting. Food, 

 water, and careful watching by the herdsmen will land them at the place of disembarkation 

 but little damaged by the trip. Care should be taken not to crowd too many in one car. 

 Thirty head can be taken if they are properly cared for, yet twenty-five head would do 

 much better. The calves designed for shipment in one car, if more than one is to be sent, 

 should be permitted to run together for some time previous to starting. After reaching the 

 terminus of their journey by rail, a week s rest, in dry lots, should be granted them, with the 

 same kind of food as before shipment. &quot;When taken any distance, slow and easy travel 

 should be given them. If either costiveness or its opposite is exhibited, simple remedies 

 should be given to prevent the too active purging or relieve the constipation. The prepara 

 tion for their reception at their Texas home should have been completed in advance of their 

 arrival ; and in addition to a supply of corn, oats, and wheat bran, as referred to above, pure 

 running water and free access to a growing oats or barley patch, which should have been 

 sowed in early autumn for their benefit, should be allowed. Suitable protection must be 

 provided to guard them from the cold blasts of our northers; giving also prompt 

 attention to any symptoms of fever, as follows: when the animal is discovered ailing, 

 one table-spoonful of powdered charcoal, one tea-spoonful of powdered ginger, and, in about 

 one hour, one quart of marsh-mallow infusion i. e., boil the mallow in hot water until you 

 obtain a strong decoction and one quart of camomile tea. If marsh-mallows are not to be 

 had, give large doses of saltpetre; and if the animal is not relieved after eight or ten hours, 

 repeat the above. Give plenty of green food as the appetite returns. This treatment has 

 been quite effective; fully 95 per cent, of cases thus treated have recovered. The symptoms, 

 when taken, are restlessness, dull eyes, and moping movements, with an inclination for soli 

 tude, constant straining to make urine, and the little voided of bad odor, and red in color. 

 The bowels are either very costive or much given to scouring. 



The most important discovery I have yet made concerning the future of thoroughbred 

 cattle in Texas, is this: they can, under proper restrictions, be imported and acclimated at not 

 exceeding a loss of ten per cent. This can be accomplished by following the course that we 

 here lay down. 



If December and January are passed without fever, you can feel safe from its ravages 

 until the rains of spring, followed by the heat of June, when the ticks and vermin menace 

 them. Then avoid exposing them to either rain or sun, and destroy the vermin by a free 

 use of coal oil and lard, using two parts of the latter to one of the former. If only spring 

 calves are brought, there will be less of fever than if older animals were brought. Too 



