120 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



aud sometimes short and quick breathing. A blubber appears under the skin of the 

 part swollen, and the tlesh becomes black, hence the name given the disease. The best 

 preventive known is bleeding in the neck. Feeding of saltpeter with provender is also 

 said to be a preventive, but is not so sure as bleeding. 



Mr. John D. Cooke, Wlieatlaiul, Hickory County, Missomi, says : 



Hog-cholera prevails here, and I have had it to contend with. After fruitless ex- 

 periments I am satisfied there is but one thing that will cure or prevent the disease, 

 and that is too expensive. I am sure that if a beef could be slaughtered every day or 

 two, and the carcass given to the hogs, that the well ones would escape the disease, 

 and those not too sick would be cured. Blue-mass for fowls sullering with the cholera 

 will be found of more real value than anything else. 



Mr. B. W. Hamlin, Betliany, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, says : 



Black-leg, or hoof-disease, among cattle has proved fatal in numerous cases here. But 

 very few of those attacked recover. 



Large numbers of young pigs died last spring from pneumonia or inflammation of the 

 Inngs. No remedy was found. 



Mr. J. T. Hester, Corsicana, jS'avarro County, Texas, says : 



Horses and cattle are measurably healthy, but hogs are jiretty generally affected 

 with something like cholera, and the losses are quite heavy. No specific remedy has 

 yet been found, but a teacupful of turpentine to one half bucket of shelled corn, well 

 mixed, has proved quite beneficial. 



Fowls are subject to a disease which canses them to droop around for a few days 

 and then die. They rarelj' recover. The disease is generally called cholera. No rem- 

 edy has been found. Your department will confer a great blessing on the country if 

 it succeeds in finding a care for cholera in hogs and chickens, and liver-rot in sheep. 

 This last-named disease can be prevented, but with present lights on the subject it 

 cannot be cured. 



Mr. William S. Eand, Yanceburg-, Lewis County, Kentucky, says: 



Hogs being the staple product and source of the principal revenue of this county, 

 I have given special attention to their treatment and the diseases to which they are 

 incident. In the limestone sections of this county the fatality of diseases has been 

 most disastrous. Hog-dealers have tried all the remedies aud practiced every kind of 

 treatment. In herds where an animal has died those remaining have been separated 

 aud quartered in small lots in distant localities, and this treatment has generally been 

 more successful than any other. The symptoms of the disease are widely different, 

 and what will cure one wonld seem to kill two. Sometimes temporary relief may be ob- 

 tained, and the animal apparently be in a fair way of recovery: but in all probability 

 in a day or two afterward it wonld be found iu a dying condition. Mr. Brazil Lyle, a 

 hog-raiser iu the mountains, has been successful in treating the disease with the free 

 nse of coal-oil, given in half pints aud by injection. The same remedy has failed else- 

 where. Capt. Jack Henderson, who has had large experience in the treatment of the 

 disease, has arrived at the conclusion that it is incurable. He has tried all the reme- 

 dies, but his losses have been very heavy. 



It has been stated and generally credited that the mountain or mast fed hogs escape 

 this disease. In order to satisfy myself on this point I this fall made a protracted trip 

 to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky for the purpose of observing the operations of 

 the disease iu the very highest latitudes of the State. In two instances the whole of 

 two herds of fat hogs, ready for the market, died within two days, shortly after my 

 arrival. They had previously shown no symptoms of the disease. Other lots, in the 

 same neighborhood, showed no signs of disease. 



It is most painful to witness the disastrous results of this mysterious and fatal dis- 

 ease on the young farmers of the interior. They grow a crop of corn to feed to hogs, 

 buy the hogs generally on credit for a few months, and then, when they are almost 

 ready for the market, this scourge comes along and carries them all off. The farmer 

 is left without corn or other supplies for his family, and is also in debt for the hogs 

 "which he has lost. I could name several instances where the wolf is now at the door 

 of many of the hard-working, honest farmers of this section, and if it is within the 

 means of your department and the agency of the National Congress, in the name of 

 God and humanity push forward the work for the speedy relief of the great jiroducers 

 of the land. 



Fowls are subject to sudden and fatal attacks of disease. I know many farmers who 

 have lost hundreds of fowls without warning. At the present writing the disease is 

 prevailing extensively. All the remedies and preventives known have been used with- 

 out efiect. Whatever the papers publish is greedily accepted and tried, but generally 



