74 disp:ase among swinh and oti[i:k domesuc animals. 



jxiipoaraiioe in this locality in AiigUKt, lH7(i. But little attention was paid to it at 

 tirst, perliaps liecanse we thouj^bt it would not spread. But wc were soon convinced 

 that nothing had ever )tas8ed through tlic country that was so serious as this. It 

 made its apiioariuico in my herd about the 1st of June last, eventually almost annihi- 

 lating them. When it lirst appeared I had two hundred and scvou very hue animals 

 of the best English Berkshire breed. Tliirty days after I had but seventeen left, my 

 loss being one hundred and ninety. While perhaps I may be considered one of our 

 largest swino-growers, yet my loss was no greater in proportion than it was in the 

 smaller hertls. 



The farmers all over this Western country are today being visited with the worst 

 scourge that has ever made its appearance. In this section they are losing from 

 twenty-five to one hundred and tifty head of swiue each. As to the nature of the dis- 

 ease I think it a tyi)hoid fever, and it is so called by almost every one who has made 

 an investigation. The lirst we discover Avrong with the hog is its refusal to eat, and 

 it acts, as we term it, dumpish. It either has a diarrhea or is costive. Its excrements 

 ;ire very otl'ensive. Very many are taken with vomiting, while some are ali'ectod with 

 bleeding at the nose. They seem to be thirsty and have a desire to lie in water a large 

 portion of the time. Their eyes are red, ami white matter stands in the corners of 

 them, while many of them have a white mattery discharge from the nose. They 

 usually live some two or three weeks after the first symptoms are observable. I have 

 seen many of them where the fever had eifher settled in the head, eyes, nose, or legs, 

 and in such cases some would become blind and others deaf. _ We have every reason 

 )o regard the disease as contagious, and I believe a pi'eveution better than a cure. A 

 few hogs recover from the disease, but a large majority die. We have done ever^'thing 

 we could to effect a cure, but so far everything we have tried has proved a failure. I 

 hardly think it necessary to say what we have given, yet it will do no harm. We have 

 given arsenic, uux-vomica, calomel, salts, soda, concentrated lye, and Dr. Herrick's 

 German hog cure. Bleeding has also been tried. 



When my hogs were taken they were on grass, on a lot of seventy acres, well watered 

 with pnre spring- water, ajid had no grain. Other's that were sick had grain and grass 

 with good spring-water. Still others had grain and slops from the house and no grass 

 or water ; but all were sick. My land is rolling prairie, with no standing water or 

 low places on the farm. The farmers generally are well otf and take good eare of 

 their stock, and the majority have them sheltered in bad weather. The stock-growers 

 here are very anxious that Congress should make an appropriation sullicient to inves- 

 tigate this matter thoioughlj-. 



Mr. T, AV. QuiNN, Pratt \ille, Chant County, Arkansas, says: 



The only prevailing disease among farm-animals in this locality is cholera ainong 

 hogs and fowls. Almost all the hogs in the neighborhood have been destroyed. Chicken 

 cholera also prevails to an alarming extent. 



Mr. L. H. CoMPTON, Bay City, Pope County, Illinois, says: 



The only diseases prevailing among any class of farm-animals here are tliose affecting 

 hogs and chickens. So far as remedies go, there seems to be l)ut little if any success 

 in curing either hogs or fowls after the disease once takes hold of them. Every dis- 

 ease affecting hogs is called cholera, hut my opinion is that there are as many diseases 

 among hogs as " human flesh is heir to." Sometimes the symptoms indicate cholera, 

 sometimes Inug-fever, sometimes various other diseases, such as measles, quinsy, affec- 

 tions of the kidneys, liver, tfec. I am of the opinion that many of these diseases are pro- 

 duced by worms, and in proof of the fact would state that those hogs that run at large 

 and feed mostly on mast are the oftenest diseased, and these diseases av<^ almost inva- 

 riably caused by worms. 



Mr. William F. \VATKiNg, La Crosse, Izard County, Arkansas, says : 



There never has been any scientific investigation in this country into the diseases of 

 animals or fowls, and all the remedies used have been entirely empirical. I am not aware 

 of any epidemic ever prevailing here among either horses or sheep. Our greatest losses 

 are in hogs, which for many years have been (in different localities and at different 

 times) subject to great fatality. The disease or diseases are confined to no particular 

 season of the year, but rage only in certain localities at the same time. One locality 

 of even a few miles in extent may suffer one season and be entirely exempt the next, 

 while a neighboring locality is suffering. In a mountain district in the adjoining 

 county of Stone, last sunuuer, nearly all the hogs died. One farmer, by way of experi- 

 ment, gave his hogs strychnia, both as a remedy and as a preventive, and lost but a 

 small per cent, of them. Chickens and turkeys are attacked locally, just as hogs, but 



