REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 213 



LAWRENCE. Hog cholera made its first appearance in our county in the year 

 1856. Previous to that time hogs were healthy. The manner or mode of introduc- 

 tion is not known to your reporter. At the time of its introduction it was more 

 fatal than at present. The disease is confined to a small territory this year and the 

 deaths are mostly confined to shoats and pigs. 



LEE. Hog cholera has been among swine in this county, under different names, 

 for many years. My opinion of its causes, deduced from long experience and ob- 

 servation, is in breeding and allowing too many to nest together in inclement 

 weather, all causing loss of vitality. I think that if hog-raisers would take more 

 pains to procure males not related to their sows, and were more careful in furnish- 

 ing them with dry sleeping places on a good board floor, there would be a marked 

 difference in the mortality of their herds. I have been breeding Chester Whites for 

 the last twenty- five years; have been very careful never to have my breeding sows 

 in any way related to the males, and I never have lost a hog with cholera, influenza, 

 kidney worms, or any other disease, while my neighbors in many cases have lost 

 all from cholera. 



LOGAN. So-called hog cholera was, to my knowledge, on father's farm in Sanga- 

 mon County in the year 1859. It seemed to take its name from the large number of 

 animals dying of the disease. One correspondent says it appeared in 1857, and was 

 brought from Missouri by some parties who purchased there a large lot of stock 

 hogs to follow cattle. 



MACON. Mr. George Young, of Argenta, Macon County, 111., is one of our oldest 

 settlers. He informed me that the first case of hog cholera ever known in this 

 county broke out on his farm from amongst a drove of hogs brought up from Ten- 

 nessee in 1860 or 1861, by who was afterwards the noted Confederate General 

 Wheeler and his brother. These men lost largely of their hogs, and the disease was 

 communicated to Mr. Young's hogs and he lost heavily. The disease still lingers 

 here, and many hogs die annually from this cause. No remedy has yet been dis- 

 covered that will effect a cure, and our people are as much in the dark with regard 

 to preventives and cures as they were twenty-five years ago. All other stock are 

 remarkably healthy no serious losses known. Hogs were healthy in this county 

 up to 1860, and until the disease made its appearance in the Wheelers' (Tennessee) 

 hogs. 



MARSHALL. In many neighborhoods in this county hog cholera has been most 

 destructive, in others not at all. Some roads are reputed to have been worse affected 

 than others, i. e. , the farms on either side of the road. A local correspondent says 

 that "some of the hogs on examination were found as sound internally as any 

 healthy hogs." The rule has been that the entire herd gees when attacked, and 

 often it is the herd of the most successful and careful feeder thereabouts. One of 

 my near neighbors suffered the loss of ninety -five as fine Poland China shoats as I 

 have ever seen. His neighbor just across the way feed lots not 200 yards apart, 

 both good farmers has to date not been attacked. Let the " professors" crack that 

 nut, if they can. 



MADISON. During the last two years there has been very little known about hog 

 cholera. Three years ago there was a great deal of the above disease, particularly 

 in the northeastern part of the county. Farmers lost in that locality in 1885 and 

 1886 nearly all their hogs, and those that survived were so badly affected as to be 

 worthless. 



MASON. Horses and cattle have done well this year. Hog cholera has not yet 

 prevailed. It is early yet, but some few cases are reported. From the best informa- 

 tion I can get hog cholera was here thirty-five years ago, but then it was not known 

 as such. Without doubt, it is caused to a great extent by overlaying and piling on 

 each other in straw sheds and stacks, and hence it becomes more prevalent when 

 cold weather sets in. We have not had any very cold snaps yet, but when hogs 

 come forth from such nests in the morning steaming, smoking, and coughing, I do 

 think it brings on this lung trouble called hog cholera. 



MASSAC. Hog cholera is supposed to have made its first appearance in this county 

 about the year 1859. It was destructive on its first appearance, but seemed to be 

 checked for several years, a few perhaps in each year dying. About 1875 was the 

 most destructive season, as the disease was general all over the county that year. 

 The best preventive measure is, when a hog dies with it to consume it with fire 

 immediately. 



McHENRY. Hog cholera first made its appearance here in 1880. Previous to that 

 time it was unknown in this county. It did not prevail to any alarming extent 

 until 1886. It was supposed that perfect cleanliness and isolation was a sure pre- 

 ventive, but in the spring of 1886 the disease, as if dropped from the clouds, at- 

 tacked some of our very best pens of hogs, not exposed in any way to infection, and 

 every hog and pig that was attacked died. In the months of March and April last 



