SPLENIC OR PERIODIC FEVER OF CATTLE. 131 



or to certain stations on railroad lands, where they can be placed alone, 

 and without coming in contact with other cattle. 



There are serious impediments in the way, which may prevent the 

 adoption of the last suggestion ; but, having stated the principles which 

 should govern legislation in this matter, we must leave the practical 

 working of any well-matured scheme to those whose interests are at 

 stake. Thus, if the stock taken from the cars at Tolono (and which 

 destroyed almost every cow owned there) by the inhabitants had been 

 unloaded in inclosed yards at a distance from the town, and then driven 

 through a fenced road on which no other cattle were permitted to pass, 

 they would have caused no loss. It must be left to local authorities to 

 state whence, when, and how such stock shall be driven to secure such 

 isolation ; and it will probably be found most practicable, under such 

 circumstances, to limit the traveling of Texan cattle on foot to the 

 winter season when the grasses are withered and the local stock is 

 tended at home. Indeed, if a dehnite tract of prairie ground is devoted 

 anywhere to the Texan trade, the conditions required for the prevention 

 of splenic fever consist in the people keeping their cattle on their own 

 inclosed farms, or in well-fenced yards and feeding sheds. 



A visit to the far west will convince any impartial person that judg- 

 ment and enterprise can be exercised with a certainty of success in 

 enabling Texan drovers to drive to points on the Union Paciiic road, 

 eastern division, where they can do no harm. Traveling north from 

 Texas through the Indian Nation into Western Kansas can intiict no 

 injury. With the completion of the Union Pacific road to San Fran- 

 cisco, it is not improbable that drovers may find it to their advantage 

 to drive further than they usually do now, and make for other stations; 

 but, whatever course they adopt in this respect, they can safely relieve 

 the overstocked State of Texas by utilizing the vast prairies of the west 

 in their important trade. 



The question to settle is whether they should travel earlier in the 

 season or later. It is my opinion that, if they wish to hear no more of 

 splenic fever, they should reach Western Kansas in the summer or in 

 early autumn, keeping their stock fresh on the abundant grasses, and 

 shipping it east when the packing season commences, about the middle 

 of October. An experiment on a large scale has been made by Messrs. 

 McCoy Brothers, at Abilene. This spot on the eastern division of the 

 Union Pacific road was selected as the most isolated, and it is situated 

 within four hundred miles of the Texan frontier, and one hundred and 

 sixty-three miles west from the State line. 



It is east of the sixth meridian, which is the line established by the 

 laws of Kansas as the limit over which Texan cattle slmll not pass ; but, by 

 common consent, the advantages offered by this spot have been hitherto 

 secured to the Texan trade. The yards were completed by the oth of 

 September, 18G7, and from that time to the close of the season, one 

 thousand car loads of cattle were shipped east from Abilene. The trade, 



