160 Oattle Problems. 



excretory matters, at amore rapid rate than happens with 

 cows that are supplied with less oily feed. And hogs in 

 the great corn districts, where hog cholera chiefly prevails, 

 are so fed in nearly all cases. 



From huddling together in crowds, hogs in contact with 

 one another incidentally breathe over much of the expired 

 breath, with its contained carbonic acid, and other poison. 

 In this way, many hogs together become affected with 

 blood poison, at the same time, and in the same herds. 

 So the blood of a whole herd of hogs may thus become 

 loaded with an excess of excretory matter ; for, though not 

 tied up, the over-fat hogs on very many leading corn 

 farms, are inactive, breathing but little during from three- 

 quarters to nine-tenths of their lives, after they are ten 

 weeks old. From the carbonaceous quality of their food, 

 their inactive habits, and their inhaling already poisoned 

 air, the blood of the hogs in many herds soon becomes 

 over-charged with poison, and too deficient in oxygen to 

 form healthy flesh, or growth, or to renew even the small 

 extent of living muscle which remains from the much- 

 reduced exercise. 



There are peculiarities in the bodily condition of hogs 

 that account for their intestines being much more affected 

 than their lungs by the fever of hog cholera; while the 

 lungs appear less injured than those of lung-diseased cows 

 : or other cattle. Over- fat hogs have a wall of fat extending 

 around their bowels, and surrounding the entire alimen- 

 tary canal. Within this wall of fat much heat is closely 

 I imprisoned, as it were. 



Huddling together in crowds, hogs share their skin-heat 

 to a large extent ; this position also intensifying the inter- 

 nal heat, particularly in the intestines, where the high de- 

 gree of heat probably induces fermentation in the fecal 

 matters. So the higher degree of heat in the intestines of 

 over-fat hogs, accounts for the lesser degree of injury in 



