282 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



are made to thoroughly disinfect the beds and other places where they lie. Tur- 

 pentine and carbolic acid are used as preventives to some extent. 



GEEENE. Hog cholera first appeared in this county in 1857. Hogs driven from 

 Kentucky southward are supposed to have introduced it here. Many remedies have 

 been tried but with varied and uncertain results. When the disease first appeared, 

 a near neighbor's hogs became badly aiTected. Some died and many were sick. 

 As a remedy he put about three quarts of hot ashes and live coals in a pail of butter- 

 milk, which they drank greedily, and every sick hog got well. He occasionally gives 

 his hogs the same throughout the year, and has never had a hog affected with cholera 

 since. I once had over 20 thrifty shoats that, after 6 of them had died, at the rate 

 of about one a day, I gave the remaining 16 chlorate of potash, and all got well im- 

 mediately. It certainly was a remedy in this case, but with other lots attacked 

 afterward it failed to cure. The same with calomel. It cured once, but failed after- 

 wards. Previous to the appearance of cholera hogs were much more healthy than 

 now, and had more careless attention formerly. Some ten or more years since I 

 had some hogs to die, and in post-mortem examinations found all the lean meat 

 filled with round specks resembling, in size and color, white mustard seed, and ly- 

 ing so loose in the flesh and so numerous that a half-teaspoonf ul could be scraped off 

 a cut surface with a knife. Among a lot fattened the same year were three, appar- 

 ently as fat and thrifty as any of the lot, but on opening them I found them simi- 

 larly afflicted, but in a somewhat less degree. An article in an agricultural paper 

 (Country Gentleman) calling for information and remedy relating to the disease was 

 replied to by Levi Barttel, of New Hampshire, stating the disease was measles, and 

 a sure remedy as well as preventive was to feed flower of sulphur to hogs, which I 

 have done for now ten years, not only without having no other case, but with such 

 an improved appearance of the meat on butchering that I have grave doubts about 

 the perfect soundness of pork if the hog has not been fed sulphur. 



HANCOCK. Hog cholera was not known in this county prior to the year 1861. 

 The mode of its introduction is not known. The disease must have originated here, 

 as no hogs were brought into the county from other counties. Hogs were generally 

 healthy prior to the year above named, with the exception of a few cases of quinsy, 

 which in some sections proved to be quite fatal. The disease was more fatal when 

 it made its first appearance in this county than at the present time; 8 per cent, of 

 the hog crop has been affected during the present year, of which 50 per cent, has 

 proved fatal. Horses have been unusually healthy during the present year, as it 

 will be noticed that hardly 5 per cent, have been affected with disease of any kind. 

 Cattle have been healthy and in good condition all the year. There have been more 

 cattle killed for beef than in any year previous since the organization of the county. 

 Sheep have done as well this year as usual. Out of 9,021 sheep 270 have been af- 

 fected by disease, which number is about 3 per cent, of all the sheep in the county; 

 16 per cent, of the affected have died. The average price of sheep in this county is 

 $1.25. They are all scrubs. , The number of sheep destroyed by dogs is greater than 

 the number which die from disease. 



HARDIN. Hog cholera made its appearance in this county last spring, and did 

 considerable damage, so much, indeed, that our supply of meat this fall will be 

 greatly diminished. 



HARDEMAN. There has been no cholera in the county this year so far as I have 

 heard. Of course hogs die every year, more or less. They frequently die in the 

 spring from eating cockle-burrs. Hogs are more healthy this year than usual. 

 Horses are occasionally attacked by blind staggers, which is generally fatal. 



HAWKINS. Every epidemic among hogs that is very fatal i denominated hog 

 cholera. In the year 1886 it was unusually prevalent and fatal, and had not entirely 

 disappeared at the beginning of the year 1887. In 1886, in many parts of our county, 

 the disease came very near making a clean sweep, many large farmers being left 

 with less than a dozen hogs, all toJLd, and many smaller ones without any. This 

 year hogs have been very healthy, after the remnant of sick hogs at the beginning 

 of the year died or recovered. This fall a lot of about 125 to 140, brought here from 

 Kentucky to be fed, and another lot of about 400 brought with them and taken to 

 Sullivan County, developed the disease soon after their arrival, and in the two lots 

 something like 175 died. I am unable to state what proportion of those affected 

 died. The disease, I learn, is still prevailing on the farms where these hogs were 

 fed, and to some extent on farms in their vicinity. Many remedies were tried, but 

 with very little success. The first hog cholera known in this county was introduced 

 by a lot of about 200 hogs brought here from Hardin County, Ky. , about the year 

 1854 or 1855, and has prevailed here at intervals ever since. It is said it usually 

 prevailed after a good mast year. But the mast last year was very rich, while na- 

 tive hogs have been quite healthy this year. No epidemic has prevailed among 

 horses. More or less distemper prevails e^ery winter. Pink-eye and charbon are 



