258 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



MISSOULA. No such thing as hog cholera has ever been known in this county. 

 No epidemic disease of any kind prevails among farm animals. 



SILVER Bow. We have no such disease as hog cholera in this county. A num- 

 ber of horses have been afflicted with glanders. 



NEBRASKA. 



BOONE. Cholera was brought into this county by the importation of hogs from 

 diseased districts. Two years ago we lost heavily by the disease, but last year our 

 losses were very light. This year the losses have been very heavy again, and the 

 disease so wide-spread that farmers have sold off closer than ever. Mr. Stevens lost 

 60 hogs out of 65; Mr. Clark, 60 out of a herd of 80; Mr. Rengler, 30 out of 50; Mr. 

 King, 150 out of 400. This is a fair sample of the average losses among our farm- 

 ers. This cholera resembles very much scarlet fever among human beings. We 

 find no preventive, much less a remedy for the malady. We generally burn the 

 carcasses. Those raising thoroughbred and pedigreed hogs have no better success 

 than those who have the more common stock. With the exception of a few cases 

 of glanders, horses have been healthy. Formerly we had 20,000 head of sheep in 

 the county; now only about 100. This has been brought about by being too far 

 from market, no domestic grasses, and the decrease in the price of wool. 



BUFFALO. Hog cholera has lately made its appearance here. It is thought to be 

 worse and more fatal than last year. The animals are being shipped off very rap- 

 idly, as corn is a short crop, and is worth 40 cents per bushel. Much of the crop is 

 being hauled to Kansas, where they have no corn. 



BUTLEK. Hog cholera raged with fearful mortality in portions of this county 

 during the Summer and fall. Its first appearance this season was in July, at least 

 in the district that has suffered the most "severely , and on a farm where some 500 or 

 600 hogs were kept. This farm has been devoted principally to hog-raising for a 

 number of years, and this is the first outbreak. The loss is estimated at $3,000. 

 Closely following this, on a farm a mile distant, it broke out, and a loss of 200 hogs 

 is reported. I -should add that on an adjoining farm there was great fatality 

 among the pigs in early spring, but it was not attributed to cholera. I am not pre- 

 pared to say that it was not the cause, however, in either case. No one can vent- 

 ure an opinion as to the cause, or where the disease came from. From this the 

 disease spread over the entire township, and into adjacent townships. In this town- 

 ship there is an average of four farms on every section; but two farmers escaped 

 an outbreak with a destruction of $100 to $3,000 worth of hogs to each farmer. In 

 the aggregate this township has lost more than $40,000 from the hog cholera 

 this season. Your correspondent was fortunate in losing but 150 head. We are 

 glad to report that while there has been more or less over the entire county, this 

 section has suffered most. At this writing it has apparently run its course. Four 

 Years ago there was an outbreak, the first I have knowledge of. It was very severe. 

 This year the older hogs are the ones that have more generally escaped, while four 

 years ago the rule was the reverse. It is not known where the disease originated. 

 There has been comparatively no loss of horses, cattle, and sheep from disease here. 

 I can not speak more definitely at this time. 



BURT. Hog cholera first made its appearance in this county about the 15th of 

 September, 1877, and has been more or less disastrous ever since. It was more fatal 

 in 1884, when it took about 80 per cent, of all the hogs in the county. Since that 

 time it seems to have lost its former destructiveness; that is, it does not seem to 

 make so general a sweep as formerly, nor is it so liable to kill whole herds as of old. 

 Sometimes only a few will die, instead of all; but it. seems to be almost as fatal as ever. 

 When a hog takes it it is almost sure to die. It seems to have started by diseased 

 hogs shipped in from other places, where the malady was raging. It appears to follow 

 railroads and spread therefrom. There seems to be no cure whatever. The only hope 

 is in preventing it by sanitary means, and in dieting our hogs. 



CASS. Hogs have died ever since I came to the county (say twenty years) every 

 few years of cholera or swine plague. I consider them the same disease, or near 

 so. There is no sure cure for it, and when a herd gets it they nearly all die, and 

 the few that do not die are of little account afterwards. As to means or mode of 

 introduction, I only know this, that where hogs are kept after cattle all winter and 

 spring in small feed pens, and an immense amount of litter left on the ground so that 

 the ground is thoroughly saturated with dung and urine of both cattle and hogs, 

 and then when kot weather sets in so that the whole mass of litter ferments and gene- 

 rates poisonous gasses, this condition will breed cholera, and when engendered under 

 such conditions is as fatal as that disease. We do not know when or how it came; 

 hi other words, it comes from bad keeping (in dirt), and from too much fat-making 



