TREATMENT OF CHOLERA 263 



large flock of pigeons making their home in the lofts of hay- 

 barns, wagon sheds, corn-cribs, cattle sheds, or other like places. 

 Especially is this frequently found on farms where cattle are fed. 

 Pigeons find cattle feed lots a most profitable source of food, and 

 they are usually always to be found on these farms where cattle are 

 kept. 



The pigeon is a more or less handsome bird and one that is 

 usually considered as desirable by most farmers. They are espe- 

 cially favorites where there are children, and we can most of us 

 remember as boys many hours of pleasure spent in building cotes 

 in which these birds might nest. 



One of the peculiar habits of the pigeon is its tendency to do 

 considerable flying from one farm to another, especially in the 

 spring of the year about nesting time. At this season the birds 

 usually visit several of the adjoining farms, and apparently look 

 them over with a view to their desirabihty as locations to live, 

 much as the members of the human family of our cities go out 

 flat hunting at the commencement of the spring season. In 

 almost all seasons of the year the pigeon is found visiting several 

 of the surrounding feed lots at irregular intervals. Wherever 

 cattle are kept, there also we usually see hogs. Now with these 

 facts before us, and the knowledge which we have of how hog- 

 cholera may be spread from one farm to another, it is not diflfi- 

 cult for us to see how the apparently harmless pigeon may carry 

 enough infectious material from one feed lot to another to set up 

 an outbreak of hog-cholera over a considerable local district. 

 Evidences of this fact are to be found in the following case 

 history : 



In a certain district of central Ohio there were several cattle 

 and hog feeders located within a distance of a few miles. On one 

 of these farms in particular there was an enormous flock of pigeons, 

 which made their home in the loft of a large hay barn. These 

 birds, several hundred in number, made frequent excursions to 

 surrounding farms in search of such food as they might be able to 

 gather in the feed lots. 



About the middle of summer there was an outbreak of cholera 

 on one of the farms nearly a mile distant from the one which 

 furnished the home for the birds. This infected farm was one of 



