300 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



sound in the groiuifl dnriujjj the wiutor, as there is not frost sufficient in many portions 

 of the State to destroy them if disconnected with the vines. Can there be anything 

 in these potatoes to produce cholera ? 



Cholera or swiue plague is a purely contagious disease, aud can only 

 be communicated to the animal by coming in contact with the virus. 

 Possibly sweet potatoes might render hogs more susceptible to the dis- 

 ease than some other kind of diet. 



Swine plague in Arkansas. — Mr. Felix G. Davis, of Grand Lake, 

 Chicot County, Ark., writes as follows under date of March 5: 



Through the kindness of Senator Garland and Hon. P, Dunn, of this State, I have 

 received three copies of the Report of the Department of Agriculture for 18S3, two of 

 which I distributed to my neiglibors. I think a copy ought to be in tlie hands of 

 every intelligent farmer. The reports on swiue plague, chicken cholera, and charbou 

 are of great interest to us, especially the report on swiue plague, or cholera, as it is 

 vulgarly termed. On this Isle of the Swamps, or Masou Hills, as it is called, we are 

 now being visited by this hog disease to an alarming extent. Fine stock hogs that in 

 January were fat and healthy are now dying on every farm, and those left are gener- 

 ally poor in flesh. Being deprived of their usual range by an overflow of the swamps 

 has no doubt had much to do with the spread of the disease. 



SHEEP. 



jSTew DISEASE AMONG LAMB. — Some months ago Mr. G. W. Marshall, 

 Eckley, Carroll County, Ohio, wrote as follows concerning a disease 

 which at that time was destroying a great many spring lambs in that 

 locality: 



We have a strauge disease among our spring lambs here this spring that I think 

 should be investigated by the Department. They die when they are from three to five 

 weeks old. Apparently the very best lambs iu the flocks will be well, as far as you 

 can see, in the morning, and by night will be dead. They act as though they had 

 spasms or fits. We have lost six, and some farmers have lost as high as thirty or forty 

 this year. It is not in all flocks, just here and there. Sometimes you will find five or 

 six lying dead at a time. I hear of it in places all over the county. We cannot tell 

 what the disease is, nor have heard of any remedy for it. Some claim they get too 

 much milk; others say that is not the trouble. Some call it lamb cholera. 



In answer to a letter of inquiry asking for further information as to 

 the symptoms of the disease and the post mortem appearances of the 

 animals that had died of it, Mr. Marshall writes : 



No more lambs have died since receiving your note, hence I have had no chance to 

 make a post mortem examination. However, a neighbor says he examined several, 

 and there appeared to be water about the heart, an unusual amount ; the gall ap- 

 peared dark and slender, as though rolled up ; stomach and other parts all right, as 

 far as he knew. The lamb when first observed seems entirely helpless. It then has 

 spells as though aff"ected with a fit ; plunges about, works its ears and mouth, rolls 

 its eyes and froths at the mouth. The animals generally attacked are from three to 

 six weeks old, and are usually those in the best condition. They live from six to 

 twelve houi's after the first symptoms of the disease are observed. We took our ewes 

 off" good blue-grass, white clover, and timothy pasture and put thorn in a woods pas- 

 ture, after which wo lost no more lambs. My observation has been that the lambs 

 that have died have been those that have had the greatest amount of milk from their 

 mothers. 



