REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL LSTDUSTRY. 309 



Mr. John Bryan, Burnet, Buriiet County: 



In answer to yours of February 13, I can say that 1 Jersey bull was brought to 

 this county from Missouri two years ago, and up to last October was all right had 

 no fever. I have known several small herds of cattle driven from the eastern coun- 

 ties where no disease whatever occurred from their importation. There have been 

 two small herds driven to my ranch, and I know that they did not cause any disease. 



Mr. L. Hearn, Belle Plain, Callahan County: 



In accordance with your request, I will try to give you as near as possible my ex- 

 perience in shipping northern cattle into this and adjoining counties. I shipped 9G 

 head of Hereford and Shorthorns to my ranch in Coleman and Concho Counties. 

 I turned them in my pasture with cattle raised here. They did very well through 

 the summer. I did not commence feeding until late winter and they got very poor. 

 I lost some 10 or 15 of them, but saw no effect that they produced on my native cat- 

 tle. I shipped these bulls from Chicago, 111. I had a very good crop of calves from 

 them the second year. I also have some 25 head, consisting of Herefords, Shorthorns, 

 and Polled Angus at my ranch in Callahan County, consisting of bulls and heifers. 

 All have done well except 3 heifers, which died the second fall. I take the disease 

 to be dry murrain. They run with my native cattle in thte same pasture. My cat- 

 tle were all healthy saw no signs of sickness among them. These cattle were 

 shipped from near St. Louis, Mo. I have also handled cattle from eastern counties 

 in Texas (in the spring and summer), and have never witnessed any trouble. They 

 never affected my cattle in the least, nor did they seem to be affected in any w^ay. 



Mr. B. F. Reynolds, Griffin, Cherokee County: 



In the summer and fall of 1875 I drove about 200 head of improved cattle from 

 Colorado to this county by way of the place where Mobeetie now is, and I will say 

 that they commenced to die of some kind of fever on the Washita River 15 miles 

 north of Mobeetie. We camped for the winter 12 miles southwest of Mobeetie, and 

 arrived here about March 1, 1876, as well as I remember. We had lost about 15 

 head when winter set in. When the weather got hot in 1876, after we arrived here, 

 they commenced to die, with the same symptoms they had in the fall before, north 

 of Mobeetie. They continued to die for eighteen months after getting here, and 

 the last hoof of them had the disease, even the calves that were dropped after get- 

 ting here, but carried by their mothers on the road down. Just how many we lost 

 I don't remember, but figure that we lost about half that got here. It was not over 

 that, and it was near if not quite that heavy. This is the only direct financial ex- 

 perience that I have had with importing cattle from the north, as I have considered 

 it too risky. I have known of several different lots of fine cattle being imported 

 into this immediate vicinity. The different times and numbers lost and numbers 

 brought would be too numerous to mention. But they all have the disease sooner 

 or later, and they are not safe until after eighteen months' residence in this country. 

 The per cent, of loss varies. It generally runs from 25 to 50 per cent. , and of tener 

 over 50 than under 25 per cent. This is especially the case with fine cattle, regard- 

 less of sex. The finer the blood the greater per cent, of loss always. I have known 

 of a great many cattle coming from all parts of Texas, and don't know of a single 

 instance of the cattle here being affected by coniing in contact with them. I am 

 reliably informed that the Monroe Cattle Company have lost cattle for the last three 

 years in one of then* pastures, and not in the other three pastures that they own, 

 and the pasture that the cattle die in has a public road running through it, and the 

 others have not. They claim that it is eastern cattle passing through that causes 

 the cattle to die, but this is the only instance that I have ever heard of. The main 

 trail passes through this county about the center, and there has been over a million 

 cattle passed over it, and I never heard of one of the native cattle being affected, 

 and the cattle that have passed over this trail come from all over southeast, south, 

 and southwest Texas. I lived in Colorado several years, and have known of numer- 

 ous herds of Texas cattle being turned right among the natives of that country, and 

 I not only never saw, but never heard of a single cow dying of Texas fever or any 

 fever, and I was in the cattle business and out among them personally, and would 

 have known if there had been many died; but the cattle that I speak of were all 

 driven and none shipped. With twenty years of actual experience in working with 

 Texas cattle, and covering almost all of the range country from the Rio Grande to 

 the British possessions, I would make oath to the effect that I never saw a single cow 

 affected, or never heard of one dying anywhere near me in any place that I have 

 been, except in the herd of the Monroe Cattle Company referred to,above. But cat- 

 tle brought from north of the south line of Kansas to this country are just as cer- 

 tain of having the fever as that they are brought here, though sometimes it is in a 

 mild form, and they are liable to have it and get well without attracting notice. * * * 



