130 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



beef at twenty, twenty-five, or thirty cents per pound in P]iila(l('li)liiii, 

 New York, and Boston, Avith the i)ackin<»' interests of Chicago, and the 

 demands of Europe, esi)ecially in times of war, it is idle to conteni])hite 

 the fencing in of steers, whidi may be purchased by thousands and 

 tens ot thousands at eight or ten dollars a liead in Texas. The ])rairie 

 lands ofStatesliivored by geographical position, and nearest the gieat cen- 

 ters of consumption for all animal produce, caiuiot be utilized for some 

 time to come, without the advantage of supplying food for stock bred at 

 a little cost elsewhere. 



To suit a northern trade, the Texan will doubtless attend to crossing 

 his cattle with short-horned blood ; and this, while it will encourage the 

 l)urchase of such animals by the farmers of Missouri, Illinois, and Indi- 

 ana, will in no way tend to modify splenic fever. Fortunately for all, 

 it is possible to establish rules which, if intelligently attended to, will 

 effectually protect any susceptible animal from destruction by contact 

 with members of its own race from the Gulf States. All these rules 

 must aim at a complete isolation for a sufticient period of time. 



With our present state of knowledge, it is imperative that we should 

 deal with all cattle from the Gulf States in the same way. But 

 numerous observations warrant us in believing that a careful study 

 of the geographical distributions of the splenic fever in the south 

 would indicate that there are broad tracts of land in Texas where the 

 stock is free from all contamination, and may, in all i^robability, be 

 freely mixed with cattle in any part of the States. It w'ould not be safe 

 to indicate the regions supposed to be healthy, inasmuch as they may 

 be more or less intersected by plague-stricken spots; but it is safe to 

 assert that the most decided and best ascertained manifestations of dis- 

 ease, and capability of communicating disease, have been observed 

 among herds derived from and near the Gulf coast. 



That the hardshii^s and privations to which Gulf-coast cattle are 

 subjected in being transported to New Orleans, and up the Mississippi 

 in steamers, may act as existing causes to the full development of fatal 

 symptoms, is probable; but such and similar lUTJudicial influences 

 do not, and cannot, engender the disease. They may facilitate intelli- 

 gent observations; and a competent veterinarian, inspecting the dead 

 and injured cattle taken into the port of New Orleans, or landed at 

 Cairo, might add very largely to our store of knowledge on this and 

 allied subjects. Such inspection might be of value in securing the 

 isolation of badly infected herds, inasnuich as ordinary observers have 

 noticed, where opportunities were aiibrded for seeing many herds from 

 the Gulf Coast, that some were a])])arently sound, and others nund)cred 

 many sick and <lying animals. Wherever such cattle are landed, there 

 should be a sullicient amount of closely fenced land, beyond which the 

 cattle should not be permitted to pass on foot. They might be trans- 

 ported thence by I'ail, but only to definite points for immediate slaughter, 



