202 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL ESTDUSTRY. 



COLUMBIA. A few of the ' ' old timers " the ante bettum farmers believe that hog 

 cholera is, or has been, an unquestioned verity in this county, and was introduced, 

 or at ony rate was first observed, in the year 1863. .Although unable to tell whence 

 it came, they agree that its ravages were chiefly, if not exclusively, confined to 

 places where the hogs slept under houses and sheds in beds of stiffling dust. While 

 subjected to this inexcusable neglect numbers of them perish, but shortly after 

 removal to clean, healthful quarters, and a diet of "grits," coarse corn meal, or 

 hominy with potash, the disease disappears. (I may state that the best-informed 

 farmers, who have been here since 18(56, with whom I have conferred, have not met 

 with a single case of hog cholera.) There is still a very considerable mortality 

 among hogs in this county, mostly in the spring, which can be easily controlled if 

 the cause is as alleged by my correspondents, which, to say the least, is highly prob- 

 able. It is this: After feasting all winter upon the rich gleanings of the pea powder 

 and sweet potato fields, the hogs are turned out upon the "range" (wild woods) to 

 "shift for themselves," their owners say, which means to find an occasional acorn 

 or root or die, as most of them do. I trust and believe such a humiliating report 

 as this can never be truthfully written of this county again. 



DUVAL. I can not learn that hog cholera has ever been in this county. 



ESCAMBIA. Most of the hogs in this county are raised in the range, and are not 

 affected by any disease. The same maybe said of horses, sheep, and cattle. I had 

 some experience with the hog cholera in ante bellum times in another part of the 

 State. Where hogs are raised in large numbers they are liable to cholera. I am 

 certain that it is contagious. If one dies of the disease the others will eat the car- 

 cass, and all that eat of it will be fatally affected. But a small number of those 

 attacked ever fully recover. I know of no effective remedy. 



GADSDEN. Hog cholera appeared, to my best recollection, in 1876, among imported 

 stock and crosses, and since that time it has spread to all scrub stock. I notice it is 

 more fatal among fat pigs. Some of my neighbors have lost some of their meat 

 hogs this season. Hogs were generally healthy up to 1876. 



GREENE. We call every disease that attacks hogs, and they die in large numbers, 

 hog cholera. The disease that prevailed in my county the past year was not pre- 

 cisely the same as the cholera of twelve or fifteen years ago. Not so many die now 

 as then according to the number attacked. The disease last fall was more confined 

 to pigs than to hogs of eighteen months and twelve months, although a good many 

 of the latter died. The date when cholera first made its appearance is not known 

 .to your correspondent, but many years before 1860 probably forty or fifty years 

 ago. 



HERNANDO. Hog cholera made its appearance in this county about ten years 

 ago. Previous to that date no disease had prevailed among hogs. It did not da 

 much harm for several years after its appearance, but the past year (1887) the fatality 

 has been very great. Hogs are not pastured here, but roam at large in the woods, 

 and of course with such free intercourse the disease spreads rapidly. No remedies 

 are used, and the result is that many valuable hogs perish which might otherwise 

 perhaps be saved. It is a* popular saying and belief, not only among the Indians 

 of Florida, but also among many of the whites, that black hogs have an immunity 

 from almost all diseases that other hogs sutler from. 



HILLSBOROUGH. There has been no hog cholera in this county the past year. 

 One of my assistants says: " I never knew a case of hog cholera until about three 

 years ago." It is generally conceded by my neighbors that it originated here among 

 the camps of the working hands while the South Florida Railroad was being built. 



HOLMES. No cases of hog cholera have appeared in this section this year. The 

 disease has prevailed here since 1883, and perhaps longer. 



LIBERTY. Cholera appeared in this county in 1876, and has killed a greater or less 

 number of hogs every year since. Previous to that time hogs did well, although we 

 raise them, or rather they raise themselves, in a semi-wild state. I do not know 

 what to say in regard to disease of cattle, as our losses, though heavy, are to be at- 

 tributejl to want of care and feed in the winter season. 



MADISON. There have been but few contagious diseases prevalent among the 

 farm animals of this county the past year. Some few cases of hog cholera have 

 been reported. 



MARION. Hog cholera made its appearance in this county about the year 1879, 

 and killed nearly all the hogs in the county. During the winter of 1884 it made 

 another clean sweep. Since that time hogs have been doing well. Previous to 

 1879 we lost some hogs by a disease known as thumps. 



NASSAU. We have had very few, if any, cases of genuine hog cholera this year. 

 Many persons have hogs around their premises and give them very little to sustain 

 them. The result is in spring and summer many die from lack of feed and care, 

 and the cause is at once called cholera. Many sheep have died while in apparent 



