Proceedixgs of the Faiuiers' Clvb. 535 



the Farmei-s' Club may feel interested in knowing that the pnblicity 

 given to mj letter, recently read before them, on the subject of the 

 lung plague of cattle, has placed us in possession of much accurate 

 information regarding the localities infested by that disease. I have 

 to thank the club for the facilities thus offered me, and at the same 

 time trust that this second letter may have a similar eifect and 

 encourage others to communicate any facts or transmit any documents 

 i relating to the nature and extent of losses by cattle disorders. 



On the subject of contagious pleuro-pneumonia I have received 

 valuable letters from several counties in Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

 Indeed, a communication from Mr, Dwight Smith of the Internal 

 Revenue Department has enabled me to trace the lung plague from 

 Washington to Alexandria, and for thirty miles beyond. This city 

 has furnished several hundred dead cows to the contractor employed 

 to remove them, and, although the stabling of cattle in the v^inter 

 season checks the propagation by contagion, as soon as the warm 

 weather and abundance of grass favor the congregation of animals on 

 commons, the disease will increase greatly in extent. 



I am preparing a complete work on the subject for the Department 

 of Agriculture, and in the meantime it has been deemed advisable to 

 publish a preliminary report that the country may know what it 

 suffers and must expect in the absence of all combination for the 

 eradication of so formidable a disease. I herewith transmit fifty copies 

 of this report for distribution by you. 



Another malady has been made the subject of several letters to me. 

 It is a form of indigestion, popularly known in England as fardel- 

 bound or " stomach staggers," associated with dizziness, prostration, 

 and even paralysis, and due to the cattle feeding on smutty corn or 

 mouldy stalks. Wet weather and the undrained condition of American 

 soils induce the abundant development of smut on Indian corn, and 

 although "a considerable quantity of these diseased stalks may be fed 

 to cattle in combination with other fodder, it is very deleterious, and, 

 in excess, induces a wide-spread mortality. The disease has been 

 reported to me from Xew York State, Connecticut, Iowa, N^ebraska,^ 

 West Yirginia and the Carolinas. Prevention consists in changing 

 the diet. The malady is not incurable. Warm water injections and 

 the internal administration of one pound or one and a half pound of 

 Epsom salts, with four ounces of sulphur and a couple of drachms of 

 ginger in w^arm water or gruel usually restores the aniniitls to health. 

 Treatment must not be delayed too long. 



