54 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



end of the drive-way. The pens attached and contiguous thereto are covered at right 

 angles with the cribs; those pens — six side by side, or twelve in all — extend the 

 building one hundred and five feet, which, added to the other apartments, malces the 

 entire building cover a space of 145x40 feet. The pens, which are abont six feet in 

 height, have windows to each, with shutters, and may be closed tight or ventilated 

 at will. The inner walls of the pens are four feet high, and the aisle and doors five 

 feet wide. The doors open in opposite directions, and when one is opened it closes 

 the aisle, so that hogs can be changed from one pen to another by simply opening two 

 doors. Each pen is provided with a trough, and near the center is a force-pump, sup- 

 plied with a rubber hose long enongh to reach to any part of the pens. With this 

 apparatus, Mr. Lockhart informed me, he thoroughly cleaned his pens once a week. 

 The cobs are scooped up and taken out daily, with all other refuse matter, and damped 

 out to the stock hogs, which are fed in adjoining lots, each lot containing fourteen 

 acres. Oue of these lots is planted to soft maples and the other to black- walnut trees, 

 the trees now being about seven years old. 



Mr. LiNFOED H. Hawes, Woodlawu, Jeflferson County, Illinois, says : 



We have no diseases of an epidemic nature among onr farm-animals other than 

 cholera, among hogs and chickens, the diagnosis of which is not ditterent from that 

 heretofore published by the commissioners of the State of Missouri. There is no spe- 

 cific remedy in use among our farmers, though bicarb, soda has been used and is 

 claimed to be such remedy. 



As a preventive for the disease among fowls, "brimstone, i. e., roll-sulphur, has been 

 placed in their drinking- vessels to impregnate the water. Bicarbonate of soda is also 

 used as a remedy, and, it is claimed, with excellent results. However, I believe it is 

 generally admitted that fowls are exempt from diseases of all kinds if kept free from 

 vermin. When on a new farm or cleared land they have access to a jilentiful supply 

 of insects and grubs found in decayed logs and brushwood, which argues that a liberal 

 allowance of fresh meat, together with plenty of coarse gravel and scrupulous clean- 

 liness, is all that is necessary to insure exemption from disease. 



We have in some localities " milk sickness," with which domestic animals are liable 

 to be attacked, and from the use of beef, milk, or butter, the disease is imparted to man- 

 kind. It is useless for me to repeat the symptoms so frequently described heretofore. 

 The cause is as much in doubt now as it was at the first settlement of the country. 

 However, it is claimed by a few who have given the matter consideration that the 

 disease has its origin in poison by cobalt or black oxide of arsenic. The exhalations 

 from the soil containing the poison gather upon the herbage or impregnate the water, 

 and thus are transmitted to whatever partakes of either. Proof is offered in the fact 

 that acid sulph. aromat. is an antidote for poison by cobalt, and it has been used with 

 good results in what seemed hopeless cases of this poison among oxen. 



Mr. Henry Grtjbe, Beaver Creek, Bond County, Illinois, says : 



There is no general disease among any class of farm-stock except among hogs and 

 chickens. Every boy knows a cholera hog or a cholera chicken when be sees it, but 

 the most shrewd and knowing ditfer widely as to the cause of the disease. From my 

 own experience I am satisfied that, with proper care and such means as are within the 

 reach of every hog-raiser, no one need have cholera among his hogs. Through care- 

 lessness I have lost a number of hogs, which has only occurred with me in a busy time. 

 My plan is to prevent, which can be done by placing common wood-ashes in a trough 

 or on the ground, with salt scattered over them, and some kind of grain, bran, or meal 

 thrown on top of that, say once a week. Besides this, place some stone-coal within 

 reach of the hogs, and my word for it you will have uo cholera. Burned bones will 

 also be found a good addition. Arsenic is curative, but " one ounce of prevention is 

 worth a pound of cure." 



It is seldom we are afflicted with chicken-cholera, and therefore I have given the 

 subject little or no attention. 



There is no limit to the duration of these diseases. The average fatality is about 

 95 per cent. 



J. Brice, veterinary surgeon, Erie, Pa., gives the following diagnosis 

 of a fatal cattle-disease which recently prevailed in that locality : 



In reply to your inquiry respecting the cattle-disease which prevailed here for a 

 short time, I would say that, so far as we know at the present time, it has completely 

 subsided. Nearly all of the animals attacked died of the disease in length of time 

 varying from a few hours to not exceeding five days. In some cases so rapid was the 

 disease that animals thought to be in perfect health in the evening were t'cund dead 

 in the morning. (These siulden deaths were known onlj' by hearsay.) The animals 



