260 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



DOUGLAS. In regard to hog cholera, there are a good many hogs dying around 

 here, but they are mostly small shoats ; but they linger for days before they die. 

 The disease, I think, should be termed hog disease and not cholera. It is a lung 

 disease, as they are first noticed with what we farmers call the thumps. I have lost 

 several the past week from three to five weeks old. My larger ones are all right. 

 One of my neighbors, about 2 miles north of me, is losing his pigs weighing from 

 30 to 50 pounds each. He lost all his large hogs three years ago, and he called the 

 disease cholera. Mr. Corliss, two or three years ago, shipped from South Omaha 

 to his ranch at Waterloo 250 head of large-sized shoats. Last Thursday he told me 

 he had lost 50 head ; they were still dying, and he is liable to lose the whole lot. 

 Now, I have taken notice several times that hogs shipped here from other parts are 

 the first to die. Two brothers, living near me, shipped inhere from Iowa two car- 

 loads of nice shoats three years ago, and they all died, but not before they had eaten 

 an immense quantity of corn. If we can not save what we raise here 'there is no 

 use shipping them here from other parts. I think it a good idea to cross the breed 

 of hogs often. I am doing it, and many of my neighbors are doing the same. 

 Some say keep them clean, but that don't always count, for a neighbor of mine, 

 living only one-half mile east of me, when we were all losing our hogs three years 

 ago he did not lose one, and his hog pen was one quagmire. When he would feed 

 them corn it would go out of sight in the mud, and the hogs would have to fish it 

 out the best they could, yet he never lost a hog, while they were dying for miles 

 all .around him. I had a hundred-acre lot, hog tight, with plenty of clear spring 

 water, and tame grass, plenty of acorns and nuts, and yet my hogs died. They also 

 had plenty of clay or marl, which they will eat by mouthfuls, and yet they died ; 

 so I say who can account for their dying? I have given up a long time ago 

 trying to guess, but I think it is all owing to the season. Last fall I built a pig- 

 gery to raise fall and winter pigs, and I raised some 80 head until this last week, 

 when some of the little ones commenced to die with what I call the thumps. 

 Now I think I have tumbled to the cause of having the thumps. They can get 

 no sunshine penned up under the roof. Sunshine is needful for everything. I 

 built this place to save the little pigs from the wolves, which are very destructive 

 to pigs. At the present price of pork it don't take many hogs to pay for a good 

 building, and you know we poor farmers have to keep doing something to make 

 both ends meet. 



DUNDY. I have made considerable inquiry about hog cholera, and have not 

 heard of a single case, so far, in the county. 



FRANKLIN. Hogs are unusually healthy this season; some droves are troubled 

 with cough which is attributed to dust by some, while others say it is caused by 

 worms. However, but few losses are reported. The so-called hog cholera has had 

 a foothold several times. It is usually brought in from a distance. It first ap- 

 peared in this county about 1880, I think. 



FRONTIER. There are no cases of hog cholera known of in our county. 



GREELEY. There has been a great deal of sickness among pigs under six months 

 old. It is not cholera, but a lung trouble. The pigs are taken with coughing and 

 running at the eyes. They at once commence to pine away, and generally die in 

 from one to six weeks. I should think that from 45 to 50 per cent, of all the pigs 

 born in this county die of the disease before they reach six months of age. There 

 has been some cholera among older hogs, but the losses have not been very great. 

 Six horses affected with glanders have been destroyed this year, and three others 

 are now quarantined by order of the State authorities. 



HALL. No cholera has occurred among hogs in this county during the current 

 year. The increase in the varions classes of farm animals for the year may be given 

 as 10 per cent, in horses, 30 per cent, in cattle, and 17 per cent, in hogs. There 

 has been a decrease of 40 per cent, in the number of sheep. 



HARLAN. The first appearance of hog cholera in this county was in 1885. The 

 health of hogs has always been good here. The cholera was brought to this county 

 from Illinois in a car-load of breeding hogs which were sold to farmers all over the 

 county and thus scattered the disease. Very little disease among any class of ani- 

 mals at this time. 



HAMILTON. As a rule, hogs were healthy and did well before the disease of 

 cholera appeared. Can not say that any locality is exempt. Lye, a teaspoonful to 

 a pail of s^op, is said to prevent and also cure the disease. Powdered lye is also 

 us 3d, Have had no experience with it, but have heard from those who have* Can 

 not tell the years in which it first appeared, or how it was brought into the county. 

 About 20 per cent, of the hogs die annually of the disease. 



HAYES. We have no hog cholera in this county. 



HITCHCOCK. Hog cholera was not known in this county until within the past 

 year. Can not learn how it came or what induced it. The season had not been 



