126 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



communicating disease, have been observed among herds derived from and near the Gulf 

 coast. 



That the hardships and privations to which Gulf-coast cattle are subjected in being 

 transported to New Orleans, and up the Mississippi in steamers, may act as existing causes 

 to the full development of fatal symptoms is probable ; but such and similar prejudicial 

 influences do not, and cannot, engender the disease. They may facilitate intelligent 

 observations; and a competent veterinarian, inspecting the dead and injured cattle taken 

 into the port of New Orleans or landed at Cairo, might add very largely to our store of 

 knowledge on this and allied subjects. Such inspection might be of value in securing the 

 isolation of badly infected herds, inasmuch as ordinary observers have noticed, where 

 opportunities were afforded for seeing many herds from the Gulf coast, that some were 

 apparently sound, while others numbered many sick and dying animals. Wherever such 

 cattle are landed there should be a sufficient amount of closely-fenced land, beyond which 

 the cattle should not be permitted to pass on foot. They might be transported thence by 

 rail, but only to definite points for immediate slaughter, or to certain stations on railroad 

 lands, where they can be placed alone, and without coming in contact with other cattle. 



There are serious impediments in the way which may prevent the adoption of the 

 last suggestion ; but, having stated the principles which should govern legislation in this 

 matter, we must leave the practical working of any well-matured scheme to those whose 

 interests are at stake. Thus, if the stock taken from the cars at Tolono (and which 

 destroyed almost every cow owned there) had been unloaded by the inhabitants in inclosed 

 yards at a distance from the town, and then driven through a fenced road on which no 

 other cattle were permitted to pass, it would have caused no loss. It must be left to local 

 authorities to state whence, when, and how such stock shall be driven to secure such 

 isolation; and it will probably be found most practicable, under such circumstances, to 

 limit the traveling of Texan cattle on foot to the winter season, when the grasses are 

 withered and the local stock is tended at home. Indeed, if a definite tract of prairie 

 ground is devoted anywhere to the Texan trade, the conditions required for the prevention 

 of splenic fever consist in the people keeping their cattle on their own inclosed farms or 

 in well-fenced yards and feeding sheds. 



A visit to the far West will convince any impartial person that judgment and enter 

 prise can be exercised with a certainty of success in enabling Texan drovers to drive to 

 points on the Union Pacific Road, Eastern Division, where they can do no harm Traveling 

 north from Texas through the Indian Nation into Western Kansas can inflict no injury. 

 With the completion of the Union Pacific Road to San Francisco, it is not improbable that 

 drovers may find it to their advantage to drive further than they usually do now, and 

 make for other stations; but, whatever course they adopt in this respect, they can safely 

 relieve the overstocked State of Texas by utilizing the vast prairies of the West in their 

 important trade. 



The question to settle is whether they should travel earlier in the season or later. It 

 is my opinion that, if they wish to hear no more of splenic fever, they should reach 

 Western Kansas in the summer or in early autumn, keeping their stock fresh on the 

 abundant grasses, and shipping it East when the packing season commences, about the 

 middle of October. An experiment on a large scale has been made by Messrs. McCoy 

 Brothers, at Abilene. This spot on the eastern division of the Union Pacific Road was 



