114 DISEASES OF SWINE 



Incise the skin of the animals with a knife in several places^ 

 so that the grease \vill run freely when the carcasses begin to get 

 hot. Pile some old wood, brush, and straw beneath the pile of 

 dead bodies, pour a half-gallon of kerosene over the carcasses and 

 wood, and apply a match. The wood and brush beneath will 

 rapidly set the grease to running freely, and this will keep the flames 

 fed until the dead bodies are entirely burned. 



Carcasses burned in this manner will burn to a crisp, and 

 there will be nothing left for dogs, hogs, buzzards, or other animals 

 to feed upon. 



(12) Buzzards. — The importance of these birds as carriers of 

 hog-cholera germs and spreading of the disease over wide territories 

 has already been mentioned, but I wish again to emphasize its 

 importance. These birds are inveterate scavengers, and will 

 travel miles and miles to attack a fresh animal carcass exposed in 

 an open field or along the banks of a stream. They carry with 

 them in their powerful talons portions of infectious material and 

 animal tissue bearing the germs of the disease. These are scat- 

 tered wherever they ahght, and finally reach the stomach of the 

 herds ranging in the field, with a resulting development of the 

 disease in this new locality in a few days. 



Stock owners often favor the destruction of the buzzards, but, 

 if you will consider for a few moments, it is not the buzzard which 

 is so much at fault after all. He is only performing the work for 

 which he is intended. The fault lies with the stock owner who 

 leaves exposed in his fields dead carcasses. Burn the dead ani- 

 mals, and the danger from buzzards and crows will be eliminated. 

 Every dead carcass, be it horse, ox, hog, sheep, dog, chicken, or 

 what not, should be immediately burned, and in this manner not 

 only is the diseased carcass destroyed, but the danger from crows 

 and buzzards is wiped out at the same time. 



So many careless hog owners are to be found in every district 

 that it would seem good poUcy to destroy the buzzard as a pro- 

 tection to their neighbors. 



(13) Dogs. — These animals also prove frequently to be the 

 means of carrying the disease from one farm to another. In every 

 farming community there are a large number of dogs who wander 

 about from one farm to another during the day, and which especi- 



