OUTBREAKS OF SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER IN MARYLAND. 



Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN, 



Commissioner of Agriculture: 



SIR : The recent outbreaks of Texas or Southern cattle fever among 

 cattle in Carroll County, Md. , was of such dimensions, and presented 

 such characteristic features, as to require a somewhat detailed state- 

 ment. 



On the 6th day of August, 1888, Darius Devilbiss, a cattle dealer 

 of Union ville, Carroll County, Md., bought, at the request of his 

 patrons, 98 head of cattle in the Chicago stock-yards. They were 

 purchased from commission merchants Cassell & Wigelsworth, 

 through the intervention of Mr. J. Cudney, an agent. They were 

 bought in small lots as follows : 20, 17, 3, 2, 1C, 1, 27, 4, 2, and were 

 composed of cattle which may have been in the yards and shifted 

 around for several days. 



These cattle were loaded into four cars and shipped via the Pitts- 

 burgh and Fort Wayne Railroad eastward. The cars are said 

 to have been cleaned, before being used, by the railroad company. 

 They were bedded with sand. Arriving on August 8, at East Lib- 

 erty', near Pittsburgh, they were unloaded into the yards there, 

 fed, watered, and reloaded into other cars bedded with tan-bark. 

 From there they were sent to the Calverton stock-yards, near Bal- 

 timore, via the Pennsylvania route. They arrived at Calverton on 

 August 9, where they were unloaded. On the following day they 

 were driven along the Liberty pike to a point some 17 miles distant 

 from Calverton, and then pastured at Mr. Hoof meister's. On the 

 succeeding day Mr. Devilbiss selected 72 head and drove them along 

 the Liberty road until he reached the vicinity of Unionville in the 

 evening. Here he pastured the cattle on the farm of Mr. George D. 

 Norris. 



The 22 head left at Mr. Hoofmeister's were said" to be "mostly fat 

 cattle," and on the 15th of August were returned to Calverton, and 

 on' the 16th they were sold on the market to Henry Eckert, a com- 

 mission merchant of Baltimore. 



On Monday, the 13th day of August, the greater part of the cattle 

 were sold. A few were sold the following day and a few remained 

 on the place until the 17th, and some even later, as will be seen here- 

 after. They were sold to sixteen different farmers, as follows: 

 Isaiah Nussbaum, 12 head; John Gaither, 4 head; David Dudderor, 

 4 head; William Baker, 1 animal; Charles Poole, 7 head; William 

 Boland, 7 head; Andrew Alexander, 4 head; John Roop, 5 head; 

 George Devilbiss, 1 animal; C. M. Thomas, 10 head; James Etzlur, 

 1 animal; Samuel Kiefers 9 head; Darius Devilbiss retained 4 head. 

 These farmers live at some distance from each other, but, with one 

 exception, in the vicinity of Unionville. Many of them had pre- 

 viously instructed the dealer to buy cattle for them and had told him 

 what kind they wanted. 



429 



