76 DISEA.SE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



to eat. Its pars will flap down over its eyes, giving it a dull, sleepy appearance. A« 

 the disease advances its breathing becomes hard and is accompanied with a symptom 

 similar to thumps in horses. Usually its bowels are constipated, but sometimes they 

 may be lax, and occasionally vomiting may occur. In a punt-mortem examination of 

 one case the entire intestine, and all it contained, were found to be very dry. 



Few people attempt to cure a hog after the disease has taken hold of it. A number 

 of ]»racti('al farmers in this end of the county hav"e used crude petroleum as a pre- 

 ventive for the i)ast six years, and are established in the belief that if regularly and 

 properly used it will keep them healthy. We buy it by the barrel, confine the hogs 

 in a J»en, and with a common tin sprinkler saturate them thoroughly from head to foot. 

 We give it internally also on corn. Those of us who have tested its merits have great 

 confidence in it, and in consequence have but little dread of the cholera. Where it has 

 been used for six or seven years past the disease has not prevailed, notwithstanding its 

 prevalence and destruction all around us. As I feel interested in the welfare of those 

 engaged in agriculture, I hope you will pardon me for pressing upon your attention the 

 A'^alue of the above article as a preventive of diseases among swine. I hope you will 

 have its merits tlioroughly tested. 



Mr. Horace J. Loomis, Chesterfield, Macoupin Couiitj, Illinois, s<ays : 



Many native cattle die here annually from what is known as. Texas fever. The 

 disea.se cannot be communicated except by Texas cattle, and they never have it. Cat- 

 tle ati'ected with it cannot give it to others, so there is no danger of its spreading and 

 becoming an epidemic as many persons fear. The immediate cause of the disease is 

 unknown here. The most probable theory with me is that it is transmitted hj a poison- 

 ous substance in the urine of the Texas cattle. Whether any other cattle from Texas 

 except the long-horned native breed can spread the disease I am unable to say, as no 

 other breed has ever been brought here from that State. The subject should be inves- 

 tigated by scientific men. 



Thousands of hogs die in this section annually. The disease assumes different forms 

 in different localities, and in the same locality in different years. At times it appears 

 to be a disease of the skin, and the hog will linger a long time before death ensues. 

 Sometimes they will bleed to death from the nose in a few minutes, while to all appear- 

 ances a few minutes previou.sly they were well. In all its forms, however, there is more 

 or less cough. I have examined man j' that have died, and in all cases have found large 

 quantities of worms either in the throat or in the intestines. No locality appears to 

 be exempt from the disease, and those who take most pains with their hogs are as 

 likely to have the di.sease as those who are more careless. Hundreds of remedies have 

 been tried, but as yet I have seen but little or no benefit from them. The whole thing is 

 shrouded in mystery, and demands at the hands of the government an investigation 

 by the most coiopetent persons known, 



Mr. Charles F. Ixgals, Sublette, Lee County, Illinois, says : 



Hogs are about the only animals subject to di.sease in our county, and so far as I have 

 observed the ailment is of one and a similar type. It occurs at no regular intervals, 

 and not ofteuer, I think, than once in ten years. I have been in the business here 

 forty years, and lentil last summer my stock have kept comparatively healthy. Out of 

 some two hundred shoats I lost about thirty, and those were the smallest and latest 

 pigs. Grown stock seldom suffer. The animals lose appetite, become stupid, dwindle 

 away slowly, and die, one here and one there as the case may be, in from one to three 

 weeks after they are manifestly attacked. Upon being started up from their nests 

 suddenly they usually are taken with a short hacking cough, but this does not continue 

 when they are again at rest. 



I do not now remember any stock-raiser w'ho has twice had the disease to any ex- 

 tent among his hogs. Sometimes out of a herd of 200 head half of them will die in- 

 side of ninety days, and those that die first are generally the smallest. My usage is 

 to give my animals extensive range, plenty of green feed, and to continually keep be- 

 fore them salt, ashes (wood or coal), stone-coal, and sulphur. They eagerly eat coal, 

 and I provide it for them by the car-load. I have thouglit that high feed with Indian 

 corn from generation to generation has worked constitutional debility in the hog. 

 At any rate, after failing in finding any preventives, I have little faith in efforts to 

 cure them after they once get sick. Isolation of all animals that are sick is found 

 favorable to the well ones and to the recovery of those that are sick. Various spe- 

 cifics have been used and recommended, but .so far as I know have effected but little 

 good. If kept warm, dry, well fed, well ventilated, and in lots of fifty or less, disea.se 

 will seldom be known. 



Mr. William Bringhurst, Springfield, Utali Territory, says : 



The climate and natural grasses of the Rncky Mountains are well adapted to stock- 

 raising, containing elen)ents that are health-i»ro.U;cing and in their natural state an 



