DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 77 



antidote for most diseases that stock are subject to. The epizootic, when raging here, 

 was not fatal to animals rnnuiug at large. The horse, however, when domesticated, 

 is subject to two very serious distempers, which, if not promptly attended to, will 

 jirove fatal, the most common and serious of which is called the cramp-colic, produced 

 by change of and over-amount of feed. The symiitoms are restlessness, enlargement 

 of abdomen, accompanied with severe pain. It will prove fatal in four or five hours. 

 The most successful remedy used is one-half pound common sal-soda, two tablespoons- 

 ful of ground mustard, and one tablespocntul of cayenne pepper, mixed in water and 

 given to the animal. The dose should be repeated in thirty minutes. Two doses are 

 generally sufficient. 



In M<)untain Farcy, the cause of which is not known, the symptoms are a swelling 

 under the belly, which extends rapidly over the whole body. I have seen the head 

 swollen to such an extent that the animal was Ijlind. It is very difficult to arrest un- 

 less taken at an early stage, and will prove fatal in a few hours. The remedy is bleed- 

 ing in the neck. If the limbs are swollen bleed in each foot, striking the plate vein 

 on the quarter between the hair and hoof. One-fourth pound of aloes, divided in three 

 doses, as pills, or used as a drench, and given every hour, in addition to above treat- 

 ment. 



Horned stock has not been subject to any contagious disease in these parts, although 

 there are isolated cases of hollow-horn, dry murrain, and fouls, which seldom or ever 

 prove fatal. Cattle thrive well on the mountain grasses summer and winter, and 

 require but little care. The raising of sheep is attracting much attention and has 

 attained considerable importance, and under the management of scientific men is be- 

 coming very profitable. The Spanish merino is acknowledged to be the best adapted 

 to this region. The only distemper in sheep that we are troubled with is the itch or 

 scab. For this we employ the following remedy: After shearing dip the sheep at 

 least every other year in a strong solution of tobacco and sulj)hur, composed of one 

 part of sulphur to five parts of tobacco. 



By experiment I find that swine can be raised profitably on the lowlands and on the 

 borders of lakes and streamlets; but this class of stock are not generally bred here. 

 They are not subject to any general distemper. The same can be said iu regard to all 

 kinds of fowls. 



Mr. A. J. Care, ChaiievStowu, Clarke County, Indiana, says: 



We are fortunately exempt at this time from any disease among farm-animals except 

 cholera among hogs. I have lost a good many myself within the last two years. I 

 tried all the remedies I could hear of, but none seemed to do any good. I then put 

 some hogs that wei'e apparently nearly dead in a close pen, gave them nothing to drink 

 but a little sweet milk and soap-suds, with a little meal to eat, and they all recovered. 

 My opinion is that none of the cholera remedies that are published as such and sold 

 throughout the country are worth anything. 



We have plenty of cuicken-cholera, but so far no remedy has been discovered that 

 seems to do any good. Preventives have been tried, but without beneficial results. 



Mr. George W. Thogard, Rutledge, Crenshaw Goimty, Alabama, 

 says : 



I will endeavor to give you my experience with hog-cholera. In 1863 it made its 

 appearance about thirty or forty miles south of this place. It then seemed to travel in 

 a northern direction, and it took it near twelve months to travel a distance of 40 miles. 

 Its destruction was at the rate of from .50 to 75 per cent, of the whole number of hogs 

 attacked. There have been symptoms of the disease several times since without any 

 marked direction as to its course of travel until 1876. In the spring of this year it 

 made its appearance about 25 or 30 miles north of this place, and its course of travel 

 was then from north to south. It took it six or eight months to travel south as far 

 as this place. I can now hear of its progress south and west of here. On this visita- 

 tion the average loss of hogs thi'oughout the county was about 50 per cent, of the 

 whole number. 



I use lime, soap, salt, copperas, and blue vitriol as preventives, but my favorite pre- 

 scription, and the one I believe to be the best, is poke-root and Jerusalem or worm- 

 seed root. I boil both together and mix the liquor with corn-meal while warm, and 

 let the hogs drink it either cold or warm. The best remedy after the hog gets very 

 sick is to kill it or have it removed from among the other hogs. The disease is more 

 fatal and of shorter duration to fat hogs than to lean ones. Woods hogs are not so 

 suliject to the disease as those that run about the farm. 



Mr. A. A. HoLCO^vrBE, Y. S., ISTew York, writes as follows concerning 

 -contagious pleura-pneumonia : 



This disease was first seen in Central Europe about a century ago, and since that 

 time has spread to most European countries, to Great Britain, Asia, Australia, and Amer- 



