— 4 



sometimes three or four, then lie down with a raging fever, and die in 



from six to twenty-four hours. 5 



"This satisfied me that it was the old-fashioned, straight, splenii 

 Texas fever, and I promised to make an investigation of the matter in 

 the autumn. Calling on this gentleman at his home in October, he 

 repeated his former statements, which wnv verified hv the words of other 

 responsible parties. The Southern cattle were all killed by the butcher, 

 and, in the language of one who assisted in the shop, ' they were all right, 

 -,ive the melt (spleen) was nearly double size, and the meat - 

 be of an unnatural color next to the hide.' The meat was all consumed 

 in the neighborhood, and no evil effects resulted. The owner of the 

 cattle says there were no poisonous weeds of any kind in his pasture, and 

 that he had more or less cattle grazing in it every year; never lost any, 

 except on two occasions, when Southern cattle were turned in and 

 allowed to mingle with the natives, or those from farther north. He 

 feels certain that the Southern cattle gave off the disease. 



"A gentleman from San Francisco reports the shipment of a herd of 

 cattle from Kern County to the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley, 

 where they were placed in a pasture with native or Northern cattle, and 

 as a result many of the Northern cattle died, while none of the Southern 

 cattle showed symptoms of disease. 



"Most of the trouble with this fever has occurred south of San Fran- 

 cisco, probably for the reason that there have been hut few shipm< nts of 

 Southern cattle to points north of that city. The cities of Stockton, 

 Sncramento, and other towns get their beef supplies from the local ranch- 

 men, or from Oregon or Nevada, and in consequence have no fear. The 

 only shipments known to have been made to Stockton have developed 

 fever, and every shipment from the south to points on the upper or north- 

 ern San Joaquin have caused trouble with the Northern cuttle. A- a rule, 

 the gentlemen who gave me their experience did so after a promise not to 

 publish their name-, and that promise I must keep. But Mr. Miller, of the 

 firm of Miller A' Lux, San Francisco, probably the richest cattle-raising 

 firm in America, gave me most valuable information, and did not require 

 the suppression of his name. Owning hundreds of thousands of acres 

 of land in Kern County, and having ranch property reaching almost 

 connectedly from there to the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley, 

 all fully stocked with cattle, and being at the same time one of the 



oldest ami most experienced wholesale butchers on the coast, hi- opin- 

 ions and observations are worthy of credence, lie says that Texas fev< r 

 developed on his ranches in 1878, and has continued to give trouble 

 more or less ever since: less this year than formerly. Many cattle died 

 in 1878, and the losses ran up into the thousands of dollars, lie had 

 been in the habil of mixing cattle from Kern County with those on the 

 San Joaquin. Since 1878, he keeps the Southern cattle, when broughl 



North, in fields by themselves. lie think- the disease was developed on 



the Coast by starvation and change of early conditions, the range loo 



much crowded, and so many Cattle on a given area that the food i^ 



befouled and poisoned. The germ being thus created, and the condi- 

 tions in many places remaining the same, the infection continues. In 



support of this theory he cites the sickness near Mendcnha 1 1, a village 

 in Alameda County, where, in 1S77, all the cattle in the neighborhood 

 died of a disease so similar in character to Texas fever that the veti rin- 

 arians pronounced it identical with that which, in 1878, developed .mi 



