110 DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTURE. 



tern prevails, which luanifests itself in the shape of an imperfect devel- 

 opment of blood, an enlargement of blood glands, and very significant 

 lesions of the stomach and liver. 



Descrii)fionsof the Texan fever, wliich have been pul)lished for years 

 past, all agree that the Texan and also Florida cattle, which have cansed 

 so mnch mischief, appear themselves to be in perfect health ; and the 

 thriving condition of many herds in Indiana, Illinois, Missonri, and 

 Kansas tended, at first, to convince us that whatever injured the im- 

 jjroved breeds indigenous to these States had no effect on the natives of 

 the country', the long-horned Texan cattle. It is true that at Cairo we 

 were informed, by a gentleman whose statement we had no reason to 

 doubt, that he had seen many Texan cattle die in the railway pens; and 

 as many as nine or ten in one morning had been found dead, having, in 

 his o])ini()n, succumbed to the same disease as that destroying the cows 

 of the inhabitants of Cairo. He s.upplied the hay for all the cattle landed 

 there, and about the first lots, landed in April, appeared sound ; but he 

 afterwards saw three or four lots, numbering from two hundred and fifty 

 to five hundred head, which were aft'ected by the prevailing disease. He 

 distinctl}^ avers that six, eight, and even ten head of dead cattle were 

 hauled off the boats when they arrived laden with stock, and the men 

 in charge got medicine for the disease. One lot of two hundred and 

 fifty animals, referred to by this informant, was taken off the cars at 

 Farina, after leaving Cairo for the north, simply because they were suf- 

 fering severely, and it was supposed that this arose from the journey; 

 but they communicated disease to all the cattle that fed in their path, 

 and killed forty-seven out of fifty Illinois cattle with which they grazed, 

 from the 10th of May to the middle of June. 



In opposition to hearsay evidence, it was my duty to examine cattle 

 alive and those which were dead. I saw sixty-four Texan steers, fresh 

 from New Orleans, which were unloaded at Cairo, on the 1st of August. 

 They all appeared healthy. We had previously seen a considerable quan- 

 tity of the same kind of stock without being able to detect the slightest 

 evidence of disease ; and were happy to receive an invitation to visit 

 Mr. Alexander's farm, at Brondlands, near Homer, where there were four 

 thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Texan steers, which had been 

 driven to Brondlands, and had communicated disease not only to the cat- 

 tle feeding on their trail, but also to a herd of Illinois cattle, Avith which 

 they were mixed in reaching their destination. 



