120 DISEASES OF SWINE 



way, where it is easily picked up by other Uve stock and carried 

 into a feed lot. 



Hogs should always be hauled to market in tight-bottom wagons, 

 and the litter used in these wagons should not be carelessly swept 

 out along the public roadway, as is often done, but should be care- 

 fully gathered up and burned, thus destroying all infectious material. 



If we are ever to control hog-cholera in this country we must 

 give attention to every possible detail that furthers the dissemina- 

 tion of the disease, and wipe out every avenue of spread of the 

 infection, both by education of those who do not appreciate the 

 danger, and exercise of police powers in the case of those who don't 

 seem to have any regard for their neighbor's welfare. 



(21) Threshing Crews. — In the country districts it is the com- 

 mon practice for farmers to exchange help during the threshing 

 season. This is a most convenient practice, and one that is to be 

 approved, but unless care is taken it will mean spreading of cholera 

 from farm to farm by the threshing crew. 



I very distinctly remember a few years ago, in western Illinois, 

 visiting a farm where a threshing crew was at work. The 

 threshing machine was located in the hog lot. And, by the way, 

 this is very frequently where the threshing is done, and the straw 

 pile so placed as to afford a shelter for the hogs in the winter 

 months. 



At this particular place which I chanced to visit there was an 

 outbreak of cholera, and about fifty yards from the threshing 

 engine two boys were engaged in digging a deep trench in which 

 they were preparing to bury half a dozen dead pigs which had 

 died during the previous night. Dozens of men and teams were 

 tramping about in this infected hog lot, gathering up infected 

 manure and litter on their feet and conveying it to their own 

 farms, to become the source of starting an epidemic of the disease 

 in their own feed lots. None of these men realized the dangers to 

 which they were exposing their own herds. It is highly essential 

 that the farmers be brought to understand the dangers attending 

 such practices, in order that they may avoid carrying cholera to 

 their own premises and thus endangering their herds. Often the 

 course of an epidemic can be traced along the route of a threshing 

 crew with nearly every farm infected. 



