CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 299 



Various remedies aimd preventives. — Mr. Byrou L. Saunders, 

 Turdy, Tenn., writes as follows, under date of April 5, last: 



The new disease wliicli lias recently made its appearance among cattle in Illinois 

 and Iowa prevailed among my cattle last winter a year ago. If taken in time it is 

 very easy to manage. Strong apple vinegar, or acetic acid, and blood-root — a strong 

 decoction or tincture, applied three times a day will cure it. 



For swine plague and fowl cholera: Equal parts of soda, alum, and copperas, and 

 -one-tenth part of blue vitriol. To prevent the plague, feed mandrake to the animals 

 in their slop. 



For murrain in cattle, Spanish fever, and intlammation of the liver : One-half cup 

 of lobelia seed, IJ cup of blood-root, i cup mandrake, 1 cup wild-cherry bark, 2 cups 

 dog-fennel blossoms, a piece of garget, or poke-root, the size of a small hen's egg, to 

 ■which add one gallon of water and boil down to one pint and a half of solution. This 

 is a dose for a grown animal, and if given in time will generally effect a cure in the 

 above-named diseases. 



Mr. L. A. Cook, Milledgeville, Ga., states that twenty-five drops of 

 tincture of aconite given when symptoms are first observed is almost 

 an infallible remedy in any form of colic. He has never known it to 

 fail, and says that a second dose is rarely necessary. He regards it as 

 the simplest and surest of all remedies. 



HOGS. 



Breeds and sanitary condition. — Mr. Henry C. Mosely, Law- 

 rence, Kans., regards our present breed of hogs and their sanitary 

 condition all that could be desired. He writes to the Department as 

 follows : 



I have traveled for fifteen years in the great hog-producing regions of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and have therefore no hesitancy in declaring that the sanitary condition 

 of swine is now better than at any period in the past twenty years. And why ? Be- 

 cause the swine producers are -provided with acclimatized and better breeding ani- 

 mals, and are not now introducing new stock, which the farmers all admit has been 

 one of the most prolific causes of disease. The most extensive swine producers now 

 allow their animals to range in pastures during the summer months; feed them less 

 corn ; provide more and better water ; are watching them more closely, and gradually 

 reducing the rearing of this class of animals to a science. The American hog is now, 

 in my humble opinion, all right, and the way to continue its prosperity is for the 

 non-swine producers to adopt the non-intervention policy, or hands oil', and leave it 

 where it now is, at the front. 



Effects of feeding sweet potatoes. — Mr. J. G. Knapp, statis- 

 tical correspondent for the State of Florida, writes as follows under 

 date of April 10 last : 



Allow me to call your attention to a remark made by J. M. Strickland, my corre- 

 spondent from Putnam County, which is new to me. He says: 



" It is thought that feeding potatoes (to hogs) during winter is the cause of chol- 

 era. Last year I lost all the hogs that I put on my potato ground, and this wiuter 

 they came off in poor condition, with a loss of 2.") per cent." 



Potatoes here mean the sweet potato, Batata cdttlis. The hogs are placed in the 

 grounds to root for those that are left after tlie crop is dug. These potatoes remain 



