12(^ DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ment inoliibited the importation of hay from the United States. Act- 

 ing- on the .side of prudence, Avith th<' limited information that coidd 

 necessarily have been at its disposal \Aiieu that order was issued, and 

 in view of the losses by conta<;ious diseases which have become chronic 

 in the British Isles, it was in all ])r<)bability the only course that could 

 have been adopted. I>ut it may be well to state, for future guidance, 

 that it is not possible for bales of haj' shii)ped to Europe to carry the 

 splenic fever. For years to come, the opeu prairie lands, on which we 

 have witnessed the dissemination of the disease, cannot yield hay for 

 the markets of America. That hay is produced in the Eastern and the 

 AVestern States, in localities where Texan cattle never have been, and 

 probably never will be, grazed; and, moreover, in the fields mown for 

 hay, cattle are not pastured. 



The larger tracts of country on which southern droves feed are likely 

 to remain unsettled for years to come, and neither scythe nor sickle has 

 ever reached them. England is as likely to get rinderpest as splenic 

 fever from America ; and the only way in which it might see the latter 

 would be by transporting herds of Gulf-coast cattle across the Atlantic, 

 to feed on British i)asture lauds, side by side with British stock. 



SEASONS. 



The intiuence of seasons on the development of splenic fever is most 

 . marked. A few nipping frosts check its ravages anywhere and every- 

 where. In Missouri and Kansas it has broken out as late as October 

 and December. Thus, in the report of the Department of Agriculture 

 for 1807, it was stated from Christian County, Missouri, that, in 18GC, 

 " Spanish fever was introduced into the western part of this county by 

 droves of Texas cattle, passing in October." From Woodson County, 

 Kansas, it was reported that the "Spanish fever broke out in December, 

 and raged until the 1st of January, ichen the cold weather set in and 

 checJced it" The droves of Texan cattle, which communicated the dis- 

 ease during the summer, leave Texas by the close of winter; So that the 

 Texan winter in no way interferes with the development of that state o^ 

 system which renders Texas herds so dangerous. 



In a case reported too vaguely to be of real value, in the report of 

 the DepartnuMit of Agriculture for 1807, we are informed that, in Doug- 

 las County, Kansas, "the Spanish fever, or soinethintj similar, made its 

 appearance, about the 1st of February, among a few cattle that were 

 driven from the south." In all probability this was not splenic fever ; 

 and the reporter adds: "I thiidc the severity of the winter caused the 

 greatest loss; about one-third of all the cattle brought from the south 

 have died." It is certain that, in States north of ^Missouri and Kansas, 

 splenic fever prevails in the months of June, .Tuly, August, and Sei»tem- 

 l)er. Straggling cases may oc(;ur in .May and in October; but the great 

 losses are observed during the four months just nanuHl. 



Does this depend on the intiuence of heat and drought, or on the acci- 

 dental circumstances that Texan cattle have been mainly distributed 



