Frohable Infection of the West by Thoroughbreds. 61 



"Danger op Infection in oub Uneenoed Stock Eanges. 



"It is needful to note the above-namecl insidious prog- 

 ress and stealthy invasions of the lung fever, and to con- 

 trast them with the more prompt and open manifestations 

 of the other animal plagues, in order to show the great 

 peril to which we are subjected by the presence in our 

 inidst of a pestilence which literally imlJKth in darkness. 

 Let us now consider the prospective infection of our great 

 stock ranges. That this is inevitable, though slow, at the 

 present rate of progress of the plague, has been suffi- 

 ciently shown. That it might occur any day by an ani- 

 mal infected in an Eastern farm or stock-yard, or in a 

 railroad car in which it was sent for the improvement of 

 the Western herds, must be abundantly evident to every 

 one who has read this article. If we now add the fact 

 that more than one tliorouqlibred Ayrshire and Jersey herd 

 has been infected with this disease during the past year, 

 Tve are at once confronted with a strong probability of an 

 early "Western infection. Let us remenaber that thorough- 

 breds alone are carried West for improvement of native 

 herds, and that a bull of the Ayrshire, Jersey, Holstein, 

 or short-horn breed, taken from a herd now or recently 

 infected, may be carried to any of our Western Territories 

 and mingle for a month with the native herds before his 

 own infection is so much as suspected ; and we can con- 

 ceive how imminent is the danger when the infection has 

 reached our Eastern tJioroughbred cattle. 



" To illustrate the result of the infection of our unfenced 

 stock ranges, I must quote another page from the history 

 of this disease in other countries. The instance of Aus- 

 tralia is the most recent as well as the most strikiig. 

 Tlie lung fever was introduced into Melbourne in 1858, 

 liy ft short-horn English cow, which died soon after land- 

 ing. Having been confined to an inclosed place, there is 

 every reason to believe that with her the disease wc uld 

 have ended, had not a teamster turned his yokes of oxen 

 into the infected park under cover of the night. These 

 oxen working on the streets infected others, the disease 

 soon spread to the open country, and the mortality in- 

 creased at an alarming rate. Vigorous measures for its 

 suppression were adopted, thousands of infected and dis- 



