DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 125 



cases where tliey have been iii the same pasture, lot, or cars, or across tlie track of the 

 Texas cattle. It does not seoiu to he contagious I'roni being near in separate pastures. 

 About two weeks after exposure the cattle cease to eat and soon die. In one case a 

 man had eighty head of extra line cattle, just ready to ship. In August ho bought a 

 lot of Texas cattle and turned them into his pastures. He then changed them, putting 

 the native fat ones in the pasture where the others had been. They soon after com- 

 menced dying, and nothing seemed to check the disease until eight had died. They 

 were sixteen-huudred-pound cattle. A neighbor went to Kansas and brought in thirty- 

 live or forty head of steers weighing about twelve hundred pounds each. He did not 

 know that they had been exposed in any Avay, and they could not have been except in 

 the cars or in lots where they were temporarily quartered. Just two weeks after, and 

 before he knew anything was wrong, two of them died. He finally lost nearly half 

 the lot. Some ettort Avas made to doctor them, but without success. The disease al- 

 ways disappears with heavy frosts. 



Several cows have recently died, just after calving, with milk-fever. The only 

 thing I have known to help them was to drench freely with melted lard and turpen- 

 tine ; say one pint of lard to two tablcspoonfuls of turpentine, and repeat the dose, if 

 necessary. 



The hog-cholera, so called, has been the greatest scourge we have ever experienced. 

 During some years from 60 to 75 per cent, of the hogs are lost by it. The usual symp- 

 toms, as now manifested, are a loss of appetite, cough, an inclination to scratch and 

 sometimes to thump, and general lassitude. They then incliue to "pile up" in their 

 beds, and many of them die during the night. No purging or vomiting is observed, 

 but ratlier a severe constipation, and the excrement is dry and hard. Many die just 

 after drinking, especially fat ones. Some will eat their regular amount of feed until just 

 before death, while others will become greatly emaciated and linger for weeks before 

 death relieves them. Mr. Thomas Danby, of the English settlement, says he had a 

 large sow to lie thi-ee weeks without either food or water, and then get well. Some 

 years since a few of my fat hogs cracked open on the back. These cracks extended to 

 itho bone, and in some cases the fat aud flesh sloughed off. A few affected in this way 

 recovered. 



Most hogs that die of cholera will bear gathering up and hauling to the grease-fac- 

 tory ; but a neighbor of mine, who had some very fat ones die of a sort of congestic n, 

 attempted to skin them, but they were so offensive that he had to desist. The blood 

 had settled all through them, and had turned the fattest iiorlions of them very black. 

 The bones were very tender and apparently rotten. 



The disease seems lo have no fixed or certain symptoms. Sometimes it will only at- 

 tack young pigs, and only ceases when there are none left to kill. Entire litters often 

 die while the mother remains comparatively healthy. In other instances only fat hogs 

 may be attacked, but generally the heaviest losses are sustained among shoats weigh- 

 ing from 75 to 125 pounds. Very often its sweeps over a whole neighborhood, and 

 Images as a contagions epidemic. In such cases only those exposed to the disease suffer, 

 while isolated herds remain exempt. Upon the first evidences of the disease it has got 

 to be the practice to separate the hogs and scatter them over the farm as much as pos- 

 sible, and if they are being fed on dry food to change them to grass. This course 

 seems to have a tendency to check the disease. The losses generally range from 25 to 

 80 per cent, of all the hogs; sometimes it reaches even higlaer than this. I made an 

 estimate once of a circle of one mile, taking my own place as the center, and within 

 That circle fi(> per cent. died. Mi'. Danby, spoken of above, lost 160 out of 200 head. 



The so-called^cures are various, but as cures they are mostly failures. Preventives are 

 often used with great benefit. But, however strangely it may seem, what may be suc- 

 cessful as a preventive or cure in one case may utterly fail in others. Mr. Danby tried 

 turpentine, using in one season ten or twelve gallons mixed in swill, but without suc- 

 cess. He now feels that he has found a sure remedy in the use of quick-lime, ashes, and 

 salt. He feedsit to his hogs ouce or twice a week, and if they are coughing and not eat- 

 ing with their usual relish he keeps it constantly in their feed-troughs. Since he com- 

 menced using this preventive he has lost no hogs. Mr. Carter, a relative of mine and 

 a large hog-raiser, says he has never been troubled wi th cholera to any great extent. 

 His reliance is upon the use of turpentine, salt, aud ashes, regularly and steadily given. 



J. M. Thompson, a neighbor, thinks he has a certain preventive and sometimes a 

 cure for the disease, in a mixture composed of arsenic, copperas, suljihur, asafetida, 

 lime, salt, and ashes. He feeds to them once a week, and, if cholera is around, oftener. 

 He regards arsenic as the main ingredient. Samuel Newton recommends to every one 

 the use of copperas, sulphur, and black antimony. He says their constant use has 

 proved of great benefit to him, as well as to others to whom he recommended the pre- 

 scription. Mr. H. Engleback fed a large number one year on slops made from ship- 

 stuff, bran, Sec, in which he constantly used soda. He had good success, while others 

 immediately around him, who fed on corn, lost heavily. Some use ashes, sulphur, and 

 salt, otliers copperas, ashes, and salt, and still another salt and ashes. These are gen- 

 erally used as preventives. If the hogs have cholera arsenic is given, and if they are 



