TREATMENT OF CHOLERA 247 



already repealed the laws affording protection to buzzards, and 

 others will soon follow suit when the great possibiUties for harm 

 which this bird possesses are more clearly understood. 



In a way it seems rather unfair to censure the buzzard for some- 

 thing which he is not directly to blame for. If everyone would 

 properly dispose of their dead animal carcasses at once by proper 

 burning, or even by deep burial, there would be nothing to draw 

 the buzzard to the neighborhood, and he would have no opportunity 

 for spreading disease over large numbers of widely separated farms, 

 as is the case under present careless conditions. 



Too great stress cannot be laid upon the fact that it is not neces- 

 sary for you to leave dead hogs exposed to buzzards to have the 

 bird bring cholera upon your farm. A dead cow, a dead sheep, a 

 dead horse, or a dead dog or chicken will draw the buzzard just as 

 quickly as will a dead hog, and there is always a strong chance that 

 the buzzards which come on your farms have been attracted from 

 a cholera district possibly several miles away. 



Illustrations have already been cited of how cholera is carried 

 in this way, but so important is this method of spreading the dis- 

 ease, and so little is its full danger appreciated, that a few more 

 instances may be profitably given. 



A certain stockman in central Illinois had a large herd of sheep 

 and a drove of hogs running in a woods pasture during the past 

 summer. He visited the herd every few days and looked them 

 over, but no daily attention was given them, as the pasture was 

 provided with a running stream which provided plenty of water, 

 and the pasture land was the source of a sufficient supply of food, 

 no grain being needed. 



One Sunday, while driving past the far side of this pasture on 

 the way home from church, he noticed several buzzards circling 

 over the trees, and decided to make a visit to the pasture and 

 find out what had caused the buzzards to come on the farm. 

 After dinner he went over to the pasture field, and, down in the 

 hollow, near the creek, he found one of the large ewes had died, and 

 the dead body was being torn apart by several of the hogs, aided 

 by a swarm of hungry buzzards. As the dead animal was already 

 pretty badly torn up, he decided to leave the hogs and birds to their 

 feast. 



