REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 493 



the herd will not live, so the sooner they are disposed of the better. In this attack I 

 lost all but 6 of my sucking pigs, 8 of my shoats, and 2 large hogs. However, by giv- 

 ing this medicine, and by feeding lightly for awhile and changing often, I got through 

 with 52 fine 300-pound hogs, which I sold in November, and 55 nice 200-pound ani- 

 ' mals, which I sold in March following. I have 56 brood sows and stock hogs left, 

 which were all among the first herd attacked. I regard the result of this medicine as 

 most excellent. . Many of my neighbors have tried it, and each and every one pro- 

 nounce it both a preventive and cure. With proper sanitary care I believe it will 

 prove a great benefit, and I gladly give it to the public. 



DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS BY HEEL FLY. 



In the month, of February, 1887, Mr. S. O. Cotton, of Coleman, 

 Tex., informed the Department that he had forwarded a copy of a 

 newspaper containing an article which he had written in regard to 

 the "heel fly," an insect which he stated was very destructive to cat- 

 tle in that locality during the early spring months. He asked for 

 information on the subject, and if no preventive measures against 

 the attack of these insects were known, or remedies for the wounds 

 inflicted, he requested that a competent person be detailed to make 

 an investigation. In reply to a letter from the Chief of the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, asking for additional information, Mr. Cotton 

 writes as follows under date of March 29, 1887: 



I regret my inability to comply with your request, as the '* heel-fly " time is over for 

 this season. I think, however, you are laboring under a misapprehension in supposing 

 that this so-called heel fly develops under the skin of the heel, and is different from 

 that which develops in the back of cattle. I suppose it is called heel fly because it 

 attacks the heel, and cattle run into water to escape it; but from my observation I 

 find that the fly more frequently attacks cattle under the belly and flanks, and about 

 the tail, than on the heel. "Devil fly " would be a more proper name for it, for it is 

 certainly the most devilish insect that I know of. I have never seen the insect 

 attack the back of a cow, but have seen it escape from the back just as it had come 

 out of the hole in the skin of the cow. Nor have I ever found the larvae elsewhere 

 than in the back near the loin region. Hence I conclude that the maggot works its 

 way from the belly, the flank, tne tail, the heel, or wherever it is deposited by the fly, 

 under the skin and up to the animal's back, where it develops into the so-called 

 "grub" or "wolf," bores a hole up through the cow's skin and comes out a full- 

 fledged, devilish fly, ready to commence business. How the maggot manages to 

 work its way under the skin and up to the back of the animal is one of the many 

 things I don't know and would like to find out. 



On April 11, 1888, Mr. Cotton wrote that he had forwarded to the 

 Department dried specimens of the fly, and also three larvae pre- 

 served in alcohol. In this letter he says: 



I have made no new discoveries regarding this insect since my letter of a year 

 ago, but am still convinced of the theory I then gave. It is without doubt the 

 greatest pest that afflicts the brute creation here. My losses in cattle the past 

 winter, particularly during the month of March, were very heavy, and I attribute 

 fully half the deaths to this abominable fly. They worried the cattle every bright, 

 warm day from February to the 5th of April this year. During this time the 

 cattle were growing weaker day by day, and running into water and bog-holes to 

 escape the fly, would stand there until they were chilled, and then would get down 

 and be unable to rise again. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS. 



Dr. R. Martin, a member of the Wisconsin State board of health, 

 writing from Milwaukee under date of November 21, 1887, says: 



We have had a number of cattle from the West brought to our city suffering 

 from ,a maxillary tumor which always discharges a large amount of offensive pus. 

 Several have had a tumor under and invading the eye, the discharge in these cases 

 being partly through the nostril. The animals are all very thin and show the 



