196 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



RECENT INFORMATION. 



The passage of laws to prevent the summer driving of southern cattle, and their 

 strict enforcement, have limited the losses from this disease in a marked degree. A few 

 cases have been reported in 1870. One in Chester County, Pennsylvania, furnishes 

 another illustration of the invariable and peculiar features of this disease. In 1869 a lot 

 of cattle from North Carolina stopped at Avondale ; soon after they had left, other cattle 

 turned into the meadow they had occupied became sick. Some twenty were attacked 

 and about three-fourths of them died. No other cattle were turned into the same inclo- 

 sure and the disease did not spread further. Many believed the ticks, which infected the 

 North Carolina cattle, and were communicated to the natives attacked, caused the disease. 

 There is no evidence that these parasites have anything to do with its diffusion or virulence. 



Our correspondent in St. Louis County, Missouri, says: &quot;We had no Spanish fever 

 last year, Texas cattle being effectually kept out by the provisions of our law during the 

 season they would be likely to spread contagion.&quot; In Benton County, &quot;there has been 

 no loss by Spanish fever. The vigilance of the people and stringent legal enactments have 

 prevented the introduction or the transit of Texas cattle through this county.&quot; &quot; Owing 

 to the stringent laws of this State, but one small drove of cattle direct from Texas, succeeded 

 in entering or passing through this county (Vernon) last summer. This drove passed 

 hastily along the east border of this county a short distance, through a district sparsely 

 settled and containing but a few cows, oxen, &c., for home use. The Spanish fever broke 

 out about six weeks after their passage, and continued until after two or three white frosts 

 in October, when it ceased to spread, and those with fever at the time mostly recovered. 

 About forty-four per cent, of the cattle which grazed on the grounds this drove passed over 

 had the fever, two-thirds of which died, the remainder slowly recovering. No other drove 

 is reported as having entered the county till after frost had killed the vegetation. Many 

 thousand then passed through without a known case of fever.&quot; A report from Bates says : 

 There has been no Spanish fever. The inhabitants of the county are organized and will 

 not allow cattle to be driven through, although the laws of the State allow them to come 

 in from December to April. I have known of two herds being driven over in the winter, 

 one in 1867, the other in 1869, and in both instances many of the native cattle which 

 came in contact with them died of the disease a short time after grass became of full bite.&quot; 

 This instance appears to invalidate the certainty of exemption from infection received 

 through stock introduced from the South in winter. 



Last summer tens of thousands of Texas cattle were driven into the southwestern 

 part of Butler County, Kansas. There were but few domestic cattle in that locality, but 

 they all died. Several herds of Texas cattle, brought direct, during the past winter, from 

 Texas and the Indian Territory, have been pastured and fed in Jefferson, Kansas, among 

 some of which were occasional losses, but none could be clearly charged to Spanish fever. 

 Our correspondent says : &quot;I have wintered (1869) a herd in my pastures in which, after 

 ward, my Durham cattle fed, and no harm has been witnessed.&quot; In Franklin, Kansas, 

 the splenic fever appeared about the 1st of September. About one hundred head of 

 native cattle died, mostly cows. The infection was taken from a drove of Texas cattle 

 passing through the county. It is reported from Shawnee, in the same State, that the 

 disease has not prevailed since the shipment exclusively of Texas cattle by rail from 



