178 DISEASES OF SWINE AKD OTHEE ANIMALS. 



they suppose, by crossing or continaal breeding in tlie same stock, do so 

 until tliey are really ignorant of how close they are breeding, and of its 

 evil effects, for (as in the human being) the penalty for this violation of 

 the law of nature is loss of vitality, less power of resisting diseases, and 

 sci'ofulous degeneracy. 



I have seen pigs not a month old which were totally blmd, with large 

 sores on the jaws, and hogs of eight or ten months with great sloughing 

 sores on the body, and I have been told by rehable gentlemen thatsome 

 lose the ilesh trom the jaws, leaving the bone exposed. In tbe okter 

 hog this affection may, perhaps, be brought about by feeding exclusively 

 upon old corn that had been exposed to the elements, but "time did not 

 allow for i)roof of this. 



Cholera in Kansas and Nebraska seems to attack preferably the Berk- 

 shire, and the BerksMre crossed by the Poland-China, which appear to 

 be the kinds preferred iu those States. The "common stock," and those 

 not bred so close, are not so hable to the disease as where they have 

 been continually crossed and called " fuie-blooded." I have been told by 

 gentlemen who are largely engaged hi hog-raising that the common stock 

 and those of pure breed are less hable to the disease — that they have 

 been in adjoinhig ranges to those diseased, and have escai)cd the infec- 

 tion. I have no doubt of this fact. 



TEEATMENT OF THE HOG, HIS FOOD, QUAETEES, ETC. 



Of food. — As Dr. Detmers, of Missoui"i, in a report upon tliis same 

 subject says, " Because he is a hog, must he be treated hoggishly ? " Poor 

 hog! Man seems to think he "has no stomach that he need respect." 

 With what do they not dose him (iu heu of what he would find for him- 

 self, were he at liberty?) 8tone coal, cliarcoal, ashes, concentrated lye! 

 Give him sour food, and afterward an alkaU to correct acidity of stom- 

 ach ! AU very good when inteUigently administered, no doubt. But, 

 does not the hog need an acid sometimes as well "? 



The almost universal food for swine in these States is corn, nothing 

 hut corn. K, perchance, they get any green food it is green com cut 

 and thrown to them. 



Corn is raised in such abundance and the price is so low, in order that 

 there may be a retiu-n for the labor of the farmer it must be converted 

 into either beef or pork ; and as, according to general behef and practice, 

 a hog reqmres less care than other domestic animals, and can st^ind any- 

 thing, he is the favorite instrument through which to reahze gain, and 

 every farmer has his herd of hogs, large or smaU. 



Of quarters. — The laws of the States of Kansas and Nebraska prohibit 

 the running at large of domestic animals, and, as a consequence, the hog 

 is confined in quarters of various kinds and dimensions, dependent upon 

 the abihty, inclination, or industry of the farmer. Thus we find that in 

 a prame country where fencing is expensive they are not apt to have 

 too much range. 



In that part of the State of Nebraska to which my observations ex- 

 tended nearly aU tlie farms were located on water-courses of variable 

 size, and for convenience the hog-pens were on the banks of the streams, 

 in many cases at an incUnation of li-om 15° to 25°. The iuclosures were 

 fuU of manure of peihaps years' standing, mixed with earth of the kind 

 known as the loess deposits, into Avhich the hogs rooted, wallowed, and 

 when sick they would eat, in a vain effort to relieve their sufferings. 

 (In many cases scarcely anything else was found iu the alimentary canal.) 



