108 DISEASES OF SWINE 



banks, and the decomposing dead animal tissue washes along with 

 the waters, to be eaten by healthy animals in other pastures, and 

 thus furnish the method of infection. 



The dangers of these shallow running streams cannot be over- 

 estimated, and any benefit that may be derived from them in the 

 matter of convenience is certainly more than overbalanced by the 

 menace to health of the animals that they offer as a possible and 

 even highlj^ probably source of infection. 



(9) Food-supply. — Here, again, we find a very active cause for 

 outbreaks of cholera in herds which would otherwise have re- 

 mained healthy. It has indeed been truly said that many farmers 

 feed their hogs in such a manner as to lead one to believe that their 

 object was to destroy the animal rather than to promote healthy 

 growth and development with freedom from disease. Hogs are, 

 fortunately, blessed with a remarkable resistance to adverse condi- 

 tions, otherwise they would all die from poisoning and disease 

 within the first few months of life. 



Only too often the hog is used as the farm-yard scavenger, 

 and is fed principally upon articles of food which are so filthy and 

 decomposed that thej' would be refused by any other farm animal. 

 Kitchen refuse, carcasses of dead animals, swill, hotel waste, de- 

 cayed vegetable and animal matter, moldy grains, and rotten 

 swill are only a few of the long list of food articles which the un- 

 fortunate hog is required to scavenger in order to obtain his daily 

 bread upon the average farm. 



Then, where kitchen s^vill, hotel and restaurant refuse, and 

 like substances are used, the unwholesomeness of the food is almost 

 invariably added to by the manner in which it is handled and fed. 

 These refuse articles are collected in barrels, tubs, and cans, which 

 are of the most filthy character imaginable, and which are never 

 cleaned from one trip to another. In the hot summer months so 

 abominable do these swill barrels become that the stench they emit 

 in passing is almost unbearable. Can any animal be expected to 

 remain healthy when fed under such circumstances? 



In the large dairy districts the skimmed milk from the separators 

 is often carelessly handled, and allowed to become a reeking mass 

 of all kinds of infectious germs and loaded with poisonous toxins, 

 before being hauled back to the farm and fed to the hogs. Not 



