96 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



CLEVELAND. 



At Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. G. C. Ashuiun, health officer, informed me that the cattle 

 had been very healthy this season. Two years ago the losses had been quite heavy 

 from Texas fever, but the farmers and those keeping cows had learned by experience 

 to keep their animals away from wherever Texas cattle had been, and in observing 

 this simple expedient had been saved heavy losses. 



The meat supply, particularly at this time of the year, comes from Texas cattle. 

 Of the 3,000 cattle killed per month, 2,600 are Texaiis. Diseased livers and diseased 

 spleens are the only diseased organs met with in animals killed for beef. Beef cattle 

 come almost entirely from points west of Cleveland ; very few from south of Cleve- 

 land. 



The cows in city dairies, i. e., those dairies within the city limits, he states are 

 uniformly healthy. In each of these dairies are kept from two to ten cows, and con- 

 ducted, as far as feed and care go, about as such dairies in other cities. In the su- 

 burbs are larger dairies, keeping from thirty to fifty cows each. From these two 

 sources, and from what is shipped in on the cars, the milk supply of Cleveland is drawn. 

 No instance of any lung disease among the cattle has ever come under his notice. 



I visited the farm of Joseph Breck, Brecksville Road, five miles from Cleveland. 

 He has 55 cows, and sells their milk in the city. Occasional cases of parturient apo- 

 plexy are the only affections from which his cows die. Upon examination I found his 

 cows healthy. He buys fresh cows from the farmers in the country around, and some- 

 times goes into Indiana and buys a car-load at a time. His cows run at pasture ex- 

 cept during the time they are milked, at which time they are fed grain, and some- 

 times hay or cornstalks. Farmers two or three miles from him have lost cows of 

 Texas fever, but with that exception there is no disease among the suburban dairies. 



In company with a sanitary inspector I visited the stock yards. They comprise 

 only a few pens, which are used merely to unload cattle brought here on the cars. 

 From here the cattle are driven to the slaughter-houses, where are pens and conven- 

 iences for feeding them as long as the owner may desire. The neighboring herds do 

 not come in contact with the cattle at these yards, as there are no commons around 

 them. 



I next visited the slaughter-houses near the stock yards. At John StreibeP s slaugh- 

 ter-house, where generally from 10 to 14 cattle are killed per day, I examined the 

 lungs and found them healthy. Most of the cattle killed here are Texaus, bought in 

 Saint Louis and shipped by cars to Cleveland. Mr. Streibel states that he finds none of 

 them aifected with disease of the lungs. At other places the lungs of cattle slaugh- 

 tered were free from disease, and the butchers all stated that in cattle they had 

 killed the lungs were sound. 



Dr A. F. Martins, veterinary surgeon, said that no cases of lung plague had occurred 

 in his practice, neither had he any reports of its existence in this locality. 



MILWAUKEE. 



Milwaukee, Wis., October 28. I called at the office of the board of health to ob- 

 tain information in regard to the health of the cows in the city dairies. I there 

 learned that the board had made strenuous efforts to get the State legislature to pass 

 a law which should provide for the appointment of a milk inspector, whose duty it 

 should be to see that the cow stables were kept in a proper sanitary condition, and 

 . that the milk sold should be unadulterated. The salary of such an inspector was to 

 be raised by assessing a tax on each milkman in proportion to the number of cows he 

 kept. This measure was strongly opposed by many of the dairymen, and failed to 

 t _ become a law. 



Dr. Wight, health commissioner, then made a personal inspection of all the cow 

 stables which furnished milk for city use. A record of this inspection was kept in the 

 office for the enlightenment of any citizens who might wish to know the condition in 

 which the cows were kept and fed that supplied him with milk. 



From this investigation Dr. Wight found at that time, (at the beginning of the year 

 1879,) that the city was supplied with the milk of 3,041 cows, making 17,014 quarts of 

 milk brought into the city in one day. In this inspection no contagious disease was 

 found to exist among the dairy cows, though many were kept in very filthy surround- 

 ings, and in close, poorly-lighted, and poorly-ventilated stables. No knowledge of 

 any contagious disease has ever come to the notice of the board of health, and if any 

 affection had existed among the cow stables such thorough inspection would have 

 revealed it. 



I next visited the feeding sheds in connection with John Meiner's distillery. In 

 these sheds were 163 bulls and steers, one-third being bulls and two-thirds steers. 

 The usual number fed in a season is 400, though this year only one-half that number 

 will be fed. The annual losses from cattle dying are very small indeed. Mr. Meiuer 

 stated that only two animals had died in the six years he had fed cattle. The cattle 



