404 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



the disease is just making its appearance, and in disinfecting the premises, or, if that is diffi 

 cult, in removing the herd at once to a non-infected place, or out of the reach of the infectious 

 principle. If possible the herd should be taken to a piece of high and dry ground, free from 

 any straw and rubbish if recently plowed, still better and there should receive clean food 

 and no water except such as is freshly drawn from a well. 



If this is complied with, and if all communication whatever with any diseased hogs or 

 pigs is cut off in every respect, which is absolutely necessary, and still danger should be 

 anticipated, for instance, if one or more animals should have become infected before the 

 herd was removed, or a possibility of either food or water for drinking being or becoming 

 tainted with the infectious principle should exist, the danger may be averted, or at least be 

 very much diminished by administering three times a day in the water for drinking either 

 some carbolic acid (about ten drops each time for every 150 pounds of live-weight), or some 

 hyposulphite of soda (a teaspoonful for every 100 pounds of live- weight), till all danger has 

 disappeared. 



Second, where swine plague has been allowed to make some progress in the herd, or 

 where the presence of the disease is not discovered ujitil several animals have been taken sick 

 or have died, others have become infected, the best that can be done is to separate at once 

 the healthy animals from the diseased and suspected ones; to place the healthy animals by 

 themselves and the doubtful ones by themselves; to separate, disinfect, and treat the animals 

 in the way just stated. Special care must be taken to prevent any communication, direct or 

 indirect, between the three different parts of the herd. If one person has to do the feeding, 

 etc., he must make it a strict rule to attend always first to the healthy animals, then to those 

 considered as doubtful, and last to the sick ones, and must never reverse that rule, or go 

 among the healthy hogs or pigs after he has been in the yard or pen occupied by the others. 



If possible each portion of the herd should have its own attendant, who should not come 

 in contact with any of the others. The separation must be a strict one in every respect; 

 even dogs and other animals may carry the infectious principle from the diseased animals or 

 from the yard occupied by them to the healthy hogs and pigs. Buckets, pails, etc., which are 

 used in feeding the sick hogs should not be used for the healthy ones, because the infectious 

 principle may be conveyed by them from one place to another. Last but not least, it is very 

 essential that the yard or hog-lot occupied by the healthy portion of the herd be higher than 

 that occupied by the others. If it is lower, and especially if it is so situated that water and 

 other liquids from the other hog-lots can flow into it, or over it, the separation is worse than 

 useless, for then the healthy portion of the herd will surely become infected unless the ground 

 is exceedingly dry. 



Third, whenever swine plague is prevailing in the neighborhood, any operation, such as 

 ringing, marking by wounding, or cutting ears or tail, and castration and spaying particu 

 larly, must not be performed, but should be delayed until the disease has disappeared, or does 

 not exist anywhere within a radius of two miles. If such operation should become absolutely 

 necessary, the wounds must be dressed at least once a day with an effective disinfectant, for 

 instance, with a solution of carbolic acid or thymol, till a healing has been affected. 



Swine plague is very often communicated from herd to herd and from place to place by 

 a careless, and, in some cases, even criminal contamination of running streamlets, creeks, and 

 rivers with the excrements and other excretions of diseased hogs and pigs, and with the car 

 casses and parts of the carcasses of the dead animals. This source of the spreading of the 

 disease can be stopped only by declaring such contamination of streamlets a nuisance and 

 making the offense punishable by law. Allowing swine affected with the plague to have 

 access to such streamlets should be considered as constituting good evidence of such a con 

 tamination, as also the throwing of dead hogs, or parts of a carcass, into such streamlets, 

 creeks, or rivers. 



