DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 13 

 Mr. n. Shackleford, Woodbury, Tenn., says: 



I have to remark that no disease of a fatal character exists amoiifj any of onr farm 

 animals except hogs. The disease generally known as bog-cholera has been i)revail- 

 ing in this connty and other counties contiguous to it to an alarming extetit, many of 

 the farmers in the community having lost nearly their entire stock, so fatal has beea 

 its ravages in many localities. 



As to a diagnosis of the disease, nothing defiuite or satisfactory has been arrived at so 

 far as my investigation or information extends. The disease is developed in the same 

 herd of hogs in various forms. For example: Some among the herd, apparently iu 

 good health, will be suddenly attacked with vomiting and purging, and will die iu 

 from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. With others the disease will assume a differ- 

 ent form of attack. Some will make constant efforts to disgorge the contents of the 

 stomach, which seems to be locked up iu their bowels. This constipation continues 

 Avith many of them from the time they first take the disease until they die. Many of 

 them thus afflicted will live from one to two weeks, and I have known a few to wear 

 out the disease and recover ; but the few that survive rarely ever make thrifty hogs. 

 I may further state that a great many hogs of different ages and sizes sicken and die 

 without exhibiting the aym[)toms above pointed out. In a majority of cases which 

 have come under my notice within the last two years, the disease can be easily de- 

 tected in any herd of hogs by the symptoms indicated, opart from the vomiting, purg- 

 ing, &c. Whenever a farmer discovers among his hogs any that move around as 

 though they were too lazy to get out of each other's way, afflicted with a squeaking 

 cough, stiff iu their joints, and when standing or walking hang their heads near the 

 ground, with a most offensive effluvia exuding from their mouths and nostrils, accom- 

 panied by loss of appetite but insatiable thirst; also, manifesting a strong desire to 

 ^ifind a warm place in which to lie down, and, when lying down, lie on their bellies in- 

 ' stead of on their sides, they should be at once separated from the well ones; or, per- 

 haps, the owner would be no worse oft' in the end to kill all such to prevent dthers from 

 taking the disease from them. 



I am of opinion that it will be needless for me to write anything on the subject of 

 preventives and cures, as all the remedies heretofore introduced and tried in this sec- 

 tion of country have been pronounced a failure by the most of those who have tried 

 them. I am well satisfied iu my own mind that not oue of the many remedies which 

 have been introduced and vouched for can be relied on as a cure, from the fact that 

 what is commonly termed hog-cholera I believe to be a variety of diseases, and it is 

 just as absurd to suppose that one remedy will cure all the diseases of hogs as that 

 one remedy will cure all the diseases of man. Nevertheless, of the many remedies 

 which have been brought to public notice, I doubt not but much good has been done 

 by at least preventing disease, if not in some abstract cases effecting a cure. 



I am an old man, and a firm believer in that old trite. maxim, "An ounce of prevent- 

 ive is worth a pound of cure." If, therefore, the Department of Agriculture can, by 

 further investigating the subject, discover a remedy which will check up or effectually 

 stop a disease whose ravages hitherto have not been confined to any locality or cli- 

 mate, it will confer a lasting benefit on our nation. 



Mr, James M. Mayo, Whitaker's, Nash County, North Carolina, 

 says: 



Iu response to your circular letter of the 10th instant, I report as follows : 

 Horses. — One-half of 1 per cent, are subject to what is kuown among the planters 

 as " Staggers." The animal seems sluggish and sleepy, eyes dull and sunken, ears 

 cold, and pulse quickened. This continues from two to four days. The animal, at 

 intervals, suddenly starts and walks, or rather staggers around iu a circle, with head 

 down. Of those affected, 99 per cent. die. It is noticed that there is more ot this dis- 

 ease when we have a rainy spring than when the reverse is the case. The writer has 

 cured one case. I drenched tlie animal with a solution or decoction of red pepper and 

 salt once each day, and cut the forehead about two inches above and between the eyes, 

 then running the blade of the knife down and up looSL-ned the skiu, thereby getting up 

 a counter-irritant. I know of another horse cured by a similar process. I think this 

 disease is due in a great measure to defective forage, bad and early grazing, when the 

 animals are not accustomed to it — in short, when the planter, in anticipation of a short 

 crop, desires to economize in feed and stints his animal. In 1867, we had an unusual 

 amount of rain and bad crops, and the death rate by staggers was fisarful. Iu Hyde 

 County the rain-fall has been very great, and hence (crop prospects exceedingly poor, 

 and the fatality this season has been much heavier than usual, as doubtless you have 

 seen from the reports from that county. I state this much to show that with judicious 

 management this fatal disease might be avoided. We also have the snuffing epizootic, 

 that " comes on the wings of the wind." I use, and have seen used with good effect, 

 carbolic acid, pine-tar, and other disinfectants. We have, in isolated cases, other dis- 



