CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 71 



aud fatal outbreaks of soutberu fevor among the susceptible animals 

 which cross their trail or mix with them upon their pastures is the 

 general result. 



Last year such outbreaks of di.sease are known to have occurred in 

 New York, Xew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and even in Dakota. Colorado 

 and Wyoming seem to have escaped, notwithstanding tlie introduction 

 of Southern cattle, and this was probably due to the peculiar cliniiitic 

 conditions, the excessive dryness of the atmosphere i)reveutiiig the 

 multiplication of germs and soon destroying them. 



It is evident, however, that this disease maybe carried to most parts 

 of the country, and that before anything can be accomplished toward 

 preventing the very important losses which are now annually caused by 

 it, we must have more accurate knowledge of the section from which 

 cattle are liable to carry the infection. To obtain the information nec- 

 essary to map out the infected district special agents have been em- 

 ployed, who have carefully traversed every county along the border- 

 line of this district, aud have investigated the cattle diseases with suffi- 

 cient detail to locate the limits of the infected district in most counties 

 with very great accuracy. In some counties a sharp line cannot be 

 drawn, because it does not exist, but in such cases the line has been 

 drawn sufficiently toward the uninfected district to embrace, as is be- 

 lieved, all the territory that was really infected at the time of examina- 

 tion. As this district is being continually enlarged by a gradual though 

 very slow advance of the infection, it is not safe to buy cattle near this 

 line for shipment to the North in summer, unless a careful personal in- 

 vestigation is made by the purchaser at the time. 



The infected part of tlie South is clearly shown on the accompanying 

 maps. To establish the boundary-line of this district beyond contro- 

 versy our special agents have carefully reported the individual experi- 

 ence of thousands of farmers, and others who have moved cattle either 

 northward or southward in the vicinity of this line. These reports are 

 far too numerous and voluminous to publish in detail, and, consequently, 

 a simple resum^ of the facts as they are known to exist is all that we 

 have attempted to give in this report. The location of the border-line 

 of the infected district is as follows: 



VIRGINIA. 



The northeastern extremity of the line is in Accomack County on the 

 Atlantic seal)oard. Tlie permanent existence of the disease on this 

 ]>eninsula has not heretofore been suspected by the country at large 

 A few facts had come to our notice within the past year or two -which 

 seemed to indicate that certain outbreaks of southern fever in ^laryland 

 had followed the introduction of cattle from Northampton County, which 

 covers the extreme southern i)art of the peninsula. At the time it 



