108 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS.' 



haps it would be best to first explaia the cause of this neglect. lu 1836, and a short 

 time after the last Indian insurrection of the Creek Nation, and a short time after the 

 massacre of the stage passengers, and the burning of the stage and United States 

 mails, I traveled througb the Creeii country from Columbus, Ga., to Montgomery, Ala. 

 Sixteen miles from Columbus were found the bones of the stage-horses and some of the 

 charred wood of the stage-coach. Every white person had moved out of the nation. 

 The public mind was greatly excited, and I was left alone with thirty or forty negroes 

 and eight horses to wend my way through the country. There was no corn to be had 

 until we reached the station of the United States soldiers, where ample food was ob- 

 tained for our horses. Having passed the Creek territory I reached the lime lands of 

 Montgomery, where I saw some cattle, and they continued to increase in numbers 

 and size the farther I progressed into the prairie lands. These cattle had very much 

 the appearance of the Texas cattle now. In the years 183G and 1837 the Indians 

 were moved out, and farmers from Georgia and the Carolinas soon occupied the lands 

 thus vacated. The grass in the summer and cane-swamps in whiter kept their stock 

 in fine condition. The cows had calves every year, and soon the woods were teeming 

 with cattle. Almost without care or feed the cows produced an abundance of milk and 

 butter the year round. But a change was all the time taking place. The large herds 

 while feeding on the hill-sides were cutting the grass roots with their feet and loos- 

 ening the soil and sand. The rains would wash this earth and soil down into the edge 

 of the cane-swamps, giving the stock a foot-hold to reach the cane on the edge, which 

 was otherwise inaccessible. And so steadj^ and rapid was this change that eight years 

 after, when I traveled through this section of the country on the same road, those cane- 

 swamps were Inarked only by sandy branches with some switch-cane on the edges. The 

 cattle-range lasted much longer near the Gulf coast, for the reason that the country is 

 more level and generally less inviting, and is farther from the sources of supply and 

 population. It was under these circumstances that cattle-raisers formed their habits. 

 These surroundings lasted a full generation, and a generation grew up who knew no 

 other resources. Cultivated pasturage and hay-lauds are unknown to them, and as I 

 have repeatedly reported before to your department, I do not know of one acre of ground 

 cultivated in West Florida for pasture and hay, though my acquaintance is very gen- 

 eral. That you may be enabled to form a correct opinion of the losses of the cattle inter- 

 est in this section, t will give you the system of stock-raising here. About the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary each year much of the grass range is burned off, and all the young and tender 

 shrubs which grew up the previous summer are killed by the fire. The wire-grass first 

 starts to grow and putsforth large bunches of young, tender, and quite nutritious growth. 

 This burning is done only in small spots of a few miles square. The cattle soon find 

 it out and gather on " the biarn." This burning is done to draw the cattle from the low 

 lands, for at this season they are very poor and weak, and hardly able to get out of the 

 smallest bog. The weather is generally such that, if there is much rain, the cattle 

 catch cold if they lie down at night. Many become stiff and lame, and some are never 

 again able to rise to their feet. If they are lifted up they are so far exhausted that 

 they rarely recover. The remainder of the loss is in boggy branches, where the cattle 

 reach after a little green switch-cane. These losses frequently amount to 80 per cent, 

 of the breeding cows and a much smaller per cent, of the dry cattle ; but as the heifers 

 are rarely ever sold or killed for beef, the stock is thus replenished. If from accident 

 or otherwise fires get started and the woods are burned while the weather is too cold 

 for the gras^o grow fast, many cows gather on " the burn " and perish while nibbling 

 at the short Herbage. This short grass is very weakening to them, as it inclines them 

 to scours. 



The general burning of the woods is about the last of February. The weather at 

 this time is usually warm and the grass shoots up rapidly. The cattle recover very 

 rapidly, though for a few days they suffer much from hunger, as the whole country is 

 a charred waste. 



About the 1st of April the cattle-owners appoint a time and place of meeting to make 

 a " drive." All the cattle at pens are collected and the owners separate them. After 

 they are separated, the large stock-owners drive fifty or one hundred five or six miles 

 away from any other large body of stock and give them into the care of stock-minders, 

 who have pens built for the separation of the cows and calves, and whose comiiensa- 

 tion for this service is the milk from twenty to fifty cows and the manure from twice 

 or three times as many dry cattle. The cows average about one quart of milk per day. 

 Since the partial destruction of the range the cows have calves but once in two years. 

 Very little milk is taken from what are called the calf-cows, the most of it being taken 

 from the yearlings. All the cattle are supposed to be penned every night, and from 

 one to three acres of ground is what is csilled " trod." On this " trod " land the stock- 

 men plant corn and sweet-potatoes. ■ Some plant a small patch of sugar-cane. About 

 the last of July or the first of August the calves are all marked and branded, and 

 the whole herd is turned loose to hunt tlie wild oats on the unburued spots of the 

 early spriiig. They have free range to gain all the strength they can to take them 

 through the winter. Beef so raised is not good. It has but little fiavor, and persons 



