No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 307 



respectable and reputable horse dealers ; and farmers and 

 other persons in country towns are advised that it is l)etter 

 to purchase an animal for what it is, at a fair price, rather 

 than to search for bargains in bogus club stables and fake 

 sale stables, or from unknown ice companies, coal com- 

 panies going out of business, and unheard-of express com- 

 panies that never existed except in the imaginations of the 

 advertisers. The old ' ' widow-lady " advertisement is played 

 out, and the lady whose husband has recently died does not 

 nowadays advertise a pet horse for sale as frequently as she 

 did a few years ago ; but the ' ' widows " are just as numerous 

 and active as ever, under other guises, and the profitable- 

 ness of their business can be judged b}^ the extent of their 

 advertising. This portion of the report can well be closed 

 with the advice of the elder Mr. AVeller to his son Samuel, 

 " Be werry careful o' widders." 



Contagious Diseases of Swine. 

 During the year 1904 there were fewer outbreaks of con- 

 tagious diseases among swine than during the preceding 

 year, and, as many cases reported were in smaller piggeries, 

 fewer animals were involved. The cases reported were also 

 more varied than usual ; those reported as hog cholera were 

 of the hog cholera type, but there seems to have been little 

 if any true hog cholera. Most of the outbreaks quarantined 

 as hog cholera chiefly resembled SAvine plague, being gener- 

 ally a septic pneumonia with diarrha:>a, resulting from feed- 

 ing city swill which had undergone putrefactive changes, or 

 some form of poisoning due to material contained in the 

 swill. Some of the powders and soaps used for washing 

 dishes in hotels and similar large establishments sometimes 

 produce symptoms resembling swine plague. Where the 

 cause of sickness was traceable to city swill, a change of 

 food seems to have been sufficient, and most of the pigs 

 have recovered after this was done. More swine have been 

 quarantined for tuberculosis than usual ; and in two instances 

 where swine have been su})[)osed to have some form of hog 

 cholera the principal trouble seems to have been something 

 else. 



