REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 239 



mast began to fall. I think the above hypothesis is worth more extended investi- 

 gation than I have given it. 



MORGAN.' Hog cholera appeared here about 1854. How it got here we know 

 not. Previous to that time these animals never had anything except thumps or 

 sore tliroat. 



OWEN. We have had no hog cholera in this county for four years past. The 

 losses by ordinary diseases for the year will not exceed, perhaps, $1,000. 



OWSLEY. What is termed hog cholera is the only fatal disease that farmers hare 

 to contend with among animals in this section. As well as can be ascertained the 

 disease appeared here about the year 1855. Up to that time hogs lived here in the 

 mountains, until they were four and five years old, perfectly healthy. Occasionally 

 we would lose a few with quinsy. Of late years the cholera visits us every two 

 or three years, and pretty generally after we have a mast. When it does come it 

 cleans the hogs out pretty nearly clean. Last fall a year ago I lost 60 head out of 

 65. Some of my neighbors lost all they had. No remedy was found to relieve 

 them. Two years ago the symptoms of this disease were different. The animals 

 usually were purged and vomited. The last time they were constipated and the 

 hair would all slip off before they would die. The flies would blow them while 

 still alive. The best remedy we could find was to put them where they could not 

 get any water. Very few animals die of disease in this section except hogs. Occa- 

 sionally horses die with bots or colic. _ Cattle have no disease among them. It 

 appears that every tune the cholera visits the hogs here it comes in from a north- 

 east direction and travels southeast. Last fall a year ago we had the cholera among 

 our hogs here; this fall it is in Clay County, southeast of here. 



PENDLETON. I do not remember when hog cholera first made its appearance in 

 my county. Myself and many others are impressed with one fact worthy of record 

 that the hardy native animals were not, and are not now, so predisposed to certain 

 classes by disease, and that hog cholera did not make its appearance until after the 

 introduction of some of the more delicately constituted breeds of hogs. One of my 

 neighbors, whose experience with hog cholera has been greater than others with 

 whom I have spoken, informs me that a cure is comparatively easy provided all 

 fluids are withheld for a reasonable length of time. 



PERRY. There has been no hog cholera in the county for the last year. The dis- 

 ease only appears about every four or five years. It has been several years since it 

 first came into the county, but it only breaks out every four or five years. I don't 

 know the cause of this. The farmers will raise a large lot of hogs and the cholera 

 will strike among them and kill the most of them, and then it will take from four 

 to five years to raise another lot; then the cholera will come around again and deci- 

 mate the herd. There has been no destructive disease of any kind among farm 

 animals this year. 



PIKE. Hog cholera was introduced into this county about 1850. No one seems 

 to have found a remedy for it. Where hogs are allowed to run at large and have 

 free access to wild roots and vegetation, and plenty of fresh water, they seem to be 

 healthier and freer from cholera and other diseases than those that are confined. 

 They should have plenty of salt, and care taken to separate the affected ones from 

 the healthy so soon as cholera is discovered among them. Some farmers say they 

 find assafoetida with red pepper good to mix with slop for hogs affected with the 

 disease. 



ROBERTSON. No hog cholera in this county. There has been no prevailing dis~ 

 ease among any class of our farm animals the past year. 



ROCKCASTLE. Hog cholera prevails in a few localities in this county. When it 

 makes its appearance in a neighborhood it generally proves very fatal during a 

 period of from three to four weeks, when it disappears. The next we hear of it 

 will be in some remote place in some other part of the county. Feeding hogs on 

 hickory wood ashes is the most popular remedy we have. The first appearance of 

 hog cholera in this county is not exactly remembered, but it was about thirty years 

 ago. Have no means of finding out how it was introduced. Hogs were generally 

 healthy before its appearance. 



SHELBY. E[og cholera made its appearance here in the year 1856, having been 

 brought here in a lot of hogs shipped from the State of Indiana. Previous to that 

 time such disease was entirely unknown to our farmers. While we know it to be 

 contagious, yet it can be avoided to some extent by proper care. One of the prin- 

 cipal causes is vermin, at least we never knew a case where the animals were not 

 filled with these pests. Another cause is irregularities in feeding, abundantly for 

 awhile and E then dropping off because of scarcity of corn towards spring, at which 

 time it prevails more than at any other season of the year. Again, allowing them 

 to sleep in wet straw. When called up in the morning there will a hot steam arise 

 from their beds as well as from their bodies, All of these things we think will pro- 



