224 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



CHEROKEE. Hogs in this county were generally healthy previous to the intro- 

 duction of cholera, which was several years ago. With the increase of higher 

 grade animals there seems to have been an increase of the disease. Localities 

 visited one season are often exempt the next. The animals are sometimes costive 

 and sometimes the opposite. Those that have sores on the outside and retain their 

 appetite often recover. Many remedies have been tried, but nothing seems as effect- 

 ive as charcoal and ashes when used as a preventive. 



CEDAR. From my own knowledge and information hog cholera first made its 

 appearance in this county in the year 1862. Prior to that time hogs had been 

 healthy. The cause of the disease is hard to determine. There are as many 

 opinions as there are men. Clean sleeping quarters, plenty of salt in a trough in 

 the pasture or lot, good water and plenty of it, and last, enough to eat, is my method 

 with the hog or any other animal that I raise on the farm. I have lost some of 

 all kinds of animals; have had the cholera, too, among my hogs. The disease exists 

 at present in different parts of the county, mostly among shoats or young hogs. I 

 should think the number of hogs lost by what is called cholera would amount to 

 one-fourth of all the hogs in the county. 



CERRO GORDO. I do not think any contagious disease has prevailed among horses 

 in this county the present year. Occasionally we lose a few cattle by a disease 

 known as " black-leg," but I do not think the losses will, at any time, amount to 

 one-half of 1 per cent. We had a little hog cholera in the eastern part of the county 

 last winter and spring, but I think it has all disappeared. 



CHICKASAW. Hog cholera has not prevailed to any great extent in our county for 

 the past year, and yet the disease has been among some herds of hogs, and possibly 

 some have died from it. Many farmers are using " concentrated lye " in the slops, 

 thinking it a good preventive of the disease. Hog cholera made its first appearance 

 here shortly after the Colorado potato beetle made its first appearance among us 

 about 1865, I think. Some years ago the disease was so fatal that nearly every herd 

 of hogs in the county was badly decimated with it, but for several years past only 

 in localities has it prevailed to any extent. 



CLARKE. Swine plague, or hog cholera, first made its appearance in this county 

 in the latter part of the year 1862, or the first of 1863. It was thought to have been 

 introduced by a passing drove from an adjoining county (before the day of railroads 

 with us), as that particular drove lost several of their number in a drive of 150 miles 

 on the public highway, and from that time to the present it has been almost con- 

 tinously with us. Sometimes it would be very destructive, and again for months 

 it would seem to cease, and farmers would hope it would not recur, but it would 

 again break out with renewed violence. Prior to that time there was no disease of 

 any kind in our herds. 



CLAY. Hog cholera is supposed to have been brought here about the year 1874, by 

 parties shipping from affected districts in Illinois and Wisconsin. A large number 

 of animals have been lost by this disease during the past year. 



CLINTON. Hog cholera has existed more or less in this county for the last eighteen 

 years. Previous to that time hogs were very healthy. At present they are a very 

 uncertain kind of property. The only safe course is to ship them to market as soon 

 as the disease appears among the herd. We have tried various preventives and 

 remedies without any appreciable success. As a general thing . all kinds of farm 

 animals are usually healthy and doing very well except hogs. 



DALLAS. The first knowledge I had of hog cholera in this county was in 1862. 

 This was in the southwestern, part of the county, among herds kept at the numer- 

 ous grist-mills in that part of the county. The foundation stock of these herds were 

 brought from Indiana and Ohio but a short time previous to the outbreak. About 

 this time the law restraining hogs from running at large went into effect, which, I 

 think, helped to aggravate the disease, as hogs that could roam the county at will 

 seldom slept or ate twice in the same place. From the time of its appearance at the 

 mills, as above stated, it began to break out along the streams leading from the mills 

 down through the southern part of the county. From 1866 to 1868 cholera was very 

 prevalent in the southern part of the county, while it was comparatively unknown 

 in the northern part; but it gradually worked its way back from the streams until, 

 by 1874, it was scattered pretty generally over the entire county. I think the water- 

 courses the main agents in scattering the disease, while the dogs and crows come 

 next on the list. Rats scatter it to some extent. 



DUBUQTJE. If hogs were allowed more clover pasture and given soaked or ground 

 corn, which is their principal food here, there would be less disease among them. 

 There is scarcely any attention given to the health of swine until disease strikes in. 

 Then there can be little done to save them, as the several remedies prescribed ap- 

 pear to have no effect. The farmers in this section are beginning to fatten their 

 spring pigs the following winter, thereby avoiding the dangers of disease by keep- 



