96 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Texan herd on any distant or on any defined pasture, from five to six 

 weeks elapse before the disease appears in the indigenous stock, grazing 

 with or after the southern cattle. It is proved that the animals may 

 simply pass leisurely over a road or prairie, feeding as they move along, 

 and, without remaining for any length of time on any portion of the 

 ground they traverse, they leave behind them sufficient poison to de- 

 stroy all or nearly all the cattle which continue to feed thereon. In such 

 cases the disease usually takes more th<in a month to attain i^s full de- 

 velopment. There are instances on record which seem to indicate that 

 the incubative stage may be shorter, and we have met with others where 

 it was reported that the disease appeared in a week from the date of 

 importation of Texan stock ; but as a rule, in such reports, the whole 

 facts are not before us, and it is not safe to draw any conclusions from 

 exceptional instances. For instance, in the monthly report of the Agri- 

 cultural Department for April, 1807, it is reported from Osage County, 

 Kansas, that about the 1st of August, 1866, the disease made its appear- 

 ance at Burlingame: 



The first that occurred was that of an ox which belonged to a logging team of seven 

 yoke. This ox, on account of his breachy propensities, was kept at uight in a stable 

 and watered from a well of pure water. When not at work in the day time he was 

 staked out to grass, with a long rope. About two weeks before he was attacked with 

 the disease, a herd of Texas cattle came along, and were stopped and fed around him 

 for an hour or more. Soon after, the rest of this team were attacked, and all died but 

 one, which escaped the disease. 



The reporter from Bates Comity, Missouri, says : 



The disease is never seen until from ten days to two weeks after the passing through 

 the country of Spanish cattle. 



Texan cattle commenced to arrive at Cairo on the 23d of April, 1868, 

 and the first case concerning which we could get reliable reports 

 occurred on the 1st of June. At Tolono the largest body of Texan cat- 

 tle arrived towards the end of May, and the disease broke out on the 

 27th of July. One gentleman of Tolono gave accommodations on e uight 

 to three hundred Texan steers, on the 25th of June, and the disease 

 appeared among his stock on the 28th of July. ^At Farina two hundred 

 and fifty Texan cattle were placed with fifty Illinois steers on the 10th 

 of INIay, and the disease appeared among the latter on or about the 15th 

 of July. Near Sodorus, a farmer had his cattle grazing on prairie over 

 which Texan cattle passed on the 1st of June, and his stock com- 

 menced to die on the 28th of July. In Champaign County Texan cattle 

 were placed on the prairie on the 15th of June, and the indigenous 

 stock began to die on the 3d of August, twenty out of thirty-eight head 

 dying in four days, that is to say, by August 7, the date of my inspec- 

 tion. 



Our experience agrees with the cases recorded, where dates are given 

 Avith some care. Thus, in the Agricultural Report for 1867, the reporter 

 from Oldham County, Kentucky, says: 



Tiie'JUh <lay of .June, 1«(30, there were driven on my farm, to stay ftue night, some 



