944 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Causes of Disease. The farmer of a generation ago knew 

 nothing of "hog cholera," and the reason seems to be that the 

 animal was treated in a natural rather than an artificial way. It 

 was allowed unlimited range, and subsisted largely on bulky 

 food, grasses, roots, and mast, with some animal food in the form 

 of grubs and worm's. He was active and muscular, always on 

 the go, and during the greater part of the year thin in flesh, 

 never fat, except late in the fall, after the mast fell, when he 

 fattened up for winter. The modern hog is a dull, sluggish ani- 

 mal, with a ring in his nose to prevent him from rooting ; he is 

 confined in a pen or muddy lot for the larger part of the year, 

 and fed on corn exclusively, which is a rich, concentrated, and 

 heating food. In addition to this, the great object of the breeder 

 for many generations has been to develop fat and early maturity, 

 so that it is now easy to attain at ten or twelve months a greater 

 weight than was formerly the result of two years' feeding. 



Another cause of impaired vitality in the hog I believe to 

 be the practice, almost universally followed for many years, of 

 breeding from young sows. Probably nine-tenths of the hogs 

 in the United Slates for a long series of years were the offspring 

 of parents not over eight months old at the time of coupling, 

 and the mothers nursed their young at a time when all their 

 energies were needed to build up and mature their own bodies. 



When we consider these causes, which have so changed the 

 constitution of the hog that from the most hardy of all domestic 

 animals it has become the most subject to disease, our wonder 

 is, not that hogs have become unhealthy, but that the race has 

 not become extinct. 



Hog Cholera. All epidemic diseases of hogs have been 

 given the general name of "cholera," although there are several 

 forms of disease which are quite dissimilar. There is, perhaps, 

 no better authority on the diseases of swine than Dr. Detmers, 

 who, in addition to large experience in veterinary practice both 

 in Europe and America, has made a special study of this subject. 

 In speaking of the diseases of swine he says : 



"I wish to banish the name 'hog cholera,' which is ill-chosen, 

 entirely without meaning, and leads to confusion, as it naturally 



