CATTLE, DISEASES OF. 



93 



probably due much of the success of those ex- 

 plorations. He was, perhaps, better known to 

 a larger number of Indian tribes than any 

 other white man, and from his long life among 

 them learned their habits and customs, under- 

 stood their mode of warfare, and spoke their 

 language as his mother tongue. No one man 

 did more than he in expediting the develop- 

 ment of the wildernesses of the Northwest, 

 which have opened so many fruitful fields of 

 enterprise and thrift. In 1847, Carson was 

 sent to Washington as bearer of dispatches, 

 and was then appointed lieutenant in the 

 Kifle Corps of the United States Army. In 

 1853 he drove 6,500 sheep over the mountains 

 to California, a very hazardous undertaking at 

 that time, and, on his return to Laos, was ap- 

 pointed Indian Agent in New Mexico. Since 

 this appointment he had been largely instru- 

 mental in bringing about the treaties between 

 the United States and the Indians. He was 

 an excellent judge of character, and knowing 

 the Indians so thoroughly, his cool judgment 

 and wisdom, in dealing with them, made him 

 of great service in the negotiations undertaken 

 with them. During the late war, he was 

 warmly and firmly on the Union side, and re- 

 peatedly rendered great service to the Govern- 

 ment in New Mexico, Colorado, and the In- 

 dian territory. He rose to the rank of colonel, 

 and was brevetted brigadier-general for his 

 meritorious conduct during the war. At its 

 close, he resumed his duties as Indian Agent. 

 In this relation to the Indians he had, in the 

 winter and early spring of 1868, visited 

 "Washington, in company with a deputation 

 of the Red-men, and made a tour of several 

 of the Northern and Eastern States. Unlike 

 most of the trappers and guides, General Car- 

 son was a man of remarkable modesty, and in 

 conversation never boasted of his own achieve- 

 ments. 



CATTLE, RECENT EPIDEMIC OB CONTAGIOUS 

 DISEASES OF. The year 1868 has been remark- 

 able for the great mortality among cattle in 

 certain sections of the United States. The 

 rinderpest, or cattle-plague, which wrought 

 such extensive mischief in England in 1866, 

 does not seem to have made its appearance on 

 this side the Atlantic, though it has several 

 times been reported by hasty and ignorant 

 veterinarians ; but there have been four other 

 epidemics, each of considerable extent, and 

 causing, in the sections where they prevailed, 

 severe losses of stock. These were : 1st, the 

 Texas, Spanish, or Splenic, Cattle Fever, which 

 proved fatal to many thousand cattle in Mis- 

 souri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and to a 

 very considerable number of the droves sent 

 to Albany, New York, Boston, Providence, 

 Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. From the nu- 

 merous conflicting statements in regard to the 

 history, origin, character, and symptoms of this 

 disease, we have gathered the following par- 

 ticulars, which seem to be well authenticated : 

 The disease in a mild form, and not generally 



fatal, seems to have existed in Texas for many 

 years, and was probably a form of typhus fever, 

 contracted possibly from the marshy and 

 malarious regions in which many of the herds 

 are pastured. It was first observed in Missouri, 

 in 1853, when Texan or Spanish cattle had 

 been driven through some of the great high- 

 ways of that State, and had been pastured at 

 intervals along their route. There is no evi- 

 dence that any of the Texan cattle were them- 

 selves affected with the disease, at the time, 

 though probably many of them had had it, and 

 recovered from it ; but Missouri cattle, driven 

 over these highways and pasturing in these 

 fields, during the same summer, were attacked 

 with the disease, and very many died. A re- 

 port made to the Missouri State Board of Agri- 

 culture, in 1868, from Vernon County, Mo., 

 where it first made its appearance, details so 

 carefully the progress and history of the disease 

 there, that we transcribe it, as throwing much 

 light on the origin of this mysterious-epidemic. 



The drove mentioned as having passed through the 

 county in 1853 was owned by Mr. Kichard Bums, of 

 Spring River. They were driven from 'I'exas the fall 

 previous, and wintered about fifty miles south of here, 

 near Sarcoxie. In the early part of June, Mr. Burns 

 came into this county with his cattle, apparently 

 healthy 2 in good order, and no lame ones in the drove, 

 numbering about 450 head. He made a slow passage 

 through the county, grazing on the best grasses near 

 the road unmolested, as no one knew at this time 

 that this species of cattle communicated a disease to 

 ours. Early in July the fever broke out on the road 



where these cattle were driven and grazed, the citi- 

 zens, after carefully tracing their route through the 

 county, in all its windings, came to the conclusion, 

 for the first time, that this fever was engendered from 

 the Texas cattle. This was fully verified in the next 

 year ; and, up to the outbreak of the war, hundreds of 

 cases occurred to prove that they were not mistaken. 

 No Texas cattle, until this year (1866), except two 

 yoke of oxen, worked here in the rail of 1865 by Mrs. 

 Box, have passed into or through this county since 

 1860 ; neither has there been a case of Spanish fever 

 during this period, or any other fatality among our 

 cattle. Mrs. Box's oxen, so far as could be seen, 

 were healthy^, and not lame. The neighbors whose 

 cattle came in contact with these oxen were Mrs. 

 Smalley, Mr. Cothran, and Mr. Packard, each having 

 the Spanish fever among their stock, losing some, not- 

 withstanding the lateness of the season. About 3,000 

 head of Texas cattle passed through this county in 

 the month of June, this year (1866), and a portion 

 of them reached six or eight miles into Bates, or the 

 adjoining county, before being turned back by citizens 

 of that county. They returned on the same road 

 previously travelled, making no delay in their pas- 

 sage, either way, more than was necessary. The 

 disease did not break out for some six weeks after 

 the passage of the droves many more recovering 

 than usual, and about 40 per cent, dying extending 

 into Bates County to the point where they were 

 turned back. It proved more fatal on the crossings 

 of watercourses, killing about 70 per cent. In 1858 

 my stock were exposed to this fever by coming in 

 contact with a drove of Texas cattle. The fever was 

 very bad among them, one or two dying every day 

 though the month of August ; they were in daily con- 

 tact with Mr. Millender's stock, who kept a herder, 

 not suffering them to reach the ground that had been 

 used by the Texas droves, yet he had not a single 



