ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 67 



it may be that a pig whose constitution has been weakened, by riper im- 

 provement may sooner succumb. All we have to do is to protect our pigs 

 to prevent the spread of the disease all over the country. What we need are 

 laws that prevent any transportation of diseased or dead hogs ; and laws 

 compelling every one to bury, or better still, to cremate his dead hogs. The 

 The old custom is, the living hogs eat the dead ones, and not only this dis- 

 ease is spread, but another disease, trichinosis. The Germans and the 

 French don't want our hogs ; they are right ; they say that they have trichi- 

 nosis in hogs, about one in 4,000. We have a great many more, but we can 

 root out this disease. Ko man or beast ever gets trichinosis unless that man 

 or beast eats meat that contains these little animals, because trichinosis 

 has to pass through two organizations before it will multiply ; it lies dor- 

 mant in one animal, it cannot multiply. I will say to you it is throwing 

 away money to invest in cholera medicines, they do no good. Complete sep- 

 aration will prevent the spreading of this disease, and nothing else will. 

 Por instance, if it breaks out among your hogs, separate the diseased ones 

 from the healthy ones, putting the healthy ones, if possible, upon higher 

 ground, which must by no means receive any drainage from the other lot. 

 They are to have clean water, every time drawn fresh from the well, and 

 throw out what they leave, that nothing that may be flying in the air may 

 be deposited in the water ; you can teach them to water regularly. If the 

 disease breaks out among your pigs, divide them into three lots, one com- 

 posed of the perfectly healthy ones, showing no symptoms of the disease, to 

 be separated and taken care of as I have described. The second lot are the 

 doubtful ones, when you cannot tell whether they have taken the disease or 

 not ; their ears will droop, or the curl will be gone out of the tail ; separate 

 them and care for them in a high, dry place. Then there are those that are 

 certainly diseased ; put a little carbolic acid in their water, say eight to ten 

 pounds to one hundred pounds, do that about once a week. This disease 

 finds an entrance into the animal system in two ways : First— Through the 

 digestive canal, through food or water that has been contaminated. Sec- 

 ondly—Through sores, wounds and lesions ; no matter how small, it will ab- 

 sorb these disease germs if they are in the air, therefore my advice would be 

 to avoid all operations on your pigs if the disease is within two miles. If 

 such an operation should be necessary, wash the wounds with carbolic acid 

 or some other antiseptic until it has healed. Old straw and rubbish will have 

 germs of this disease in them, so avoid them. The hogs must be kept clean, 

 and if all of these rules are kept there will be not much danger of spreading. 

 It should be a criminal offense for people to throw a dead hog into a creek 

 or pond where other hogs are liable to drink, instead of burying or otherwise 

 disposing of them. 



Mr. Chester: It has been affirmed two or three times to-day, that I 

 said that the better breeding had created disease in swine. I intended to 

 say no such thing, what I did say was this: that it was a question among 

 farmers, as to the propriety or impropriety of pursuing this matter of early 

 maturity. I said that in pushing stock to early maturity there was a possi- 

 bility of giving them constitutional weakness and thus disease. 



Dr. Mills : That is true, not only in breeding hogs, but in all classes 



