186 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



The returns from Osage County state that no Texas cattle were allowed an entrance, 

 and hence there was no disease ; but that in 1866, native cattle sickened in about a week 

 after the introduction of a drove from Texas, and fifty died. 



About two thousand head of cattle from the Cherokee country passed through Morris 

 County without communicating the disease. 



The fever prevailed in the northern part of Bourbon County, and destroyed six hun 

 dred head of the native stock, ninety per cent, of the whole number attacked. About five 

 hundred head of the Texan cattle have entered the county after the 1st of June, coming 

 via Fort Smith and Baxter Springs. They were in good condition and apparently healthy. 

 The disease broke out in from four to ten days after their introduction. 



Ten steers arrived in Troy, Doniphan County, July 15, all apparently healthy. In 

 about five weeks after their introduction twelve head died, and several more were sick at 

 the date of the return. None recovered. In former years (before the prohibitory law) the 

 native stock suffered severely from Texas fever. The opinion obtains here that the 

 disease is communicated by the feet,* for if Texan and native cattle are kept in adjoining 

 pastures, merely separated by a fence, the native stock remain healthy, but if they pass 

 over the track of the Texan cattle, they are almost sure to become diseased. 



Our correspondent in Butler reports that probably one hundred thousand passed 

 through that county in 1868, and at least ten thousand remained to winter. They Vere 

 generally healthy, and in fair condition ; probably one per cent, lame, with matter oozing 

 out at the top of the hoof, but without any symptoms of Texan fever. He assumes that 

 the time from their introduction to the outbreak among the native cattle varies according 

 to the temperature in hot weather from nine to ten days only may elapse before the 

 development of the disease, but as the cold season approaches, much longer time is 

 required. In colder weather a larger proportion of the native stock attacked, recover. No 

 case occurred except among cattle exposed to the Texan herds. Texan cattle, after passing 

 two winters in Kansas, take the fever as readily as the native stock on being exposed to 

 animals recently from Texas. 



In Greenwood County large numbers of cattle died with splenic fever, in September, 

 1865. Our correspondent lost fifty-two per cent, of his cattle on the home range, through 

 which lay the highway traveled by Texas cattle, while three other herds, four or five 

 miles away, were perfectly healthy. The experience of his neighbors was of the same 

 character ; and the watering and camping places of the droves were everywhere marked 

 by carcasses of domestic cattle. The period of incubation was ten to twenty days. 



The loss from &quot; Spanish fever &quot; in Dickinson County was over $6,000 in 1868. 



Ten head of oxen died in Republic County in the fall of 1867, after feeding on the 

 track of Texan herds. In Butler and Wyandotte several fatal cases were reported. 



Missouri. The losses from this disease in Southwestern Missouri for several years 

 prior to the war, and from 1865 to 1868, when legal restrictions on summer driving were 

 quite generally enforced, have been extremely burdensome. Vernon County appears to have 

 suffered more than other counties. The losses there in 1858 are estimated at $200,000. 

 The arrival of Texas cattle has uniformly been the prelude to prevalent disease and heavy 



&quot;The facts are correct, but the deduction may be faulty; a better conclusion would be that the virus comes from the 

 excrement. 



