BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



253 



The infected part of the South is clearly shown on the accompanying 

 maps. Oft) establish the boundary -lino of this district beyond contro- 

 versy our special agents have carefully reported the individual experi- 

 ence of thousands ot fanners, and others who have moved cattle cither 

 northward or southward in the vicinity of this line.* These reports are 

 far too numerous and voluminous to publish in detail, and, consequently, 

 a simple resume of the facts as they are known to exist is all that wc 

 have attempted to give in this report. The location oi' the border-line 

 of the infected district is as follows: 



VIRGINIA. 



The northeastern extremity of the line is in Accomack County on the 

 Atlantic seaboard. The permanent existence of the disease on this 

 peninsula has not heretofore been suspected by the country at large. 

 A few facts had come to our notice within the past year or two "which 

 seemed to indicate that certain outbreaks of southern fever in Maryland 

 had followed the introduction of cattle from Northampton Count}*, which 

 covers the extreme southern part of the peninsula. At the time it 

 seemed impossible that this disease could have secured a permanent 

 lodgement so far north, and the reports were scarcely credited. 



A careful examination of the peninsula, however, has demonstrated 

 the existence of the infection of southern cattle fever throughout North- 

 ampton County, and extending for 2 or 3 miles across the boundary into 

 the southern part of Accomack County. The infection seems to have 

 been in Northampton County so long that no one remembers a time 

 when it was absent. It is said that there are local laws prohibiting the 

 movement of cattle from Northampton to Accomack at any season of 

 the year, but that recently they have not been strictly enforced. In 1880 

 a considerable number of cattle that had been running upon commons in 

 Accomack County, 2 or 3 miles from the southern boundary, died with 

 symptoms of southern fever. It was found by investigation that more 

 or less cattle had died lroin pasturing on these commons every summer 

 for the past ten years. 



In April, 1881, a drove of about 50 head of cattle was collected in 

 Northampton County and driven to market across Accomack. At 

 Pungoteagne a stop of several hours was made, and here at least six 

 head of cattle contracted the disease during the following summer and 

 died. Two miles farther north another halt was made for dinner, and 

 in this vicinity nine of the native animals died. Twenty miles north of 

 ,this the herd seems to have stopped again, and here a large number of 

 native cattle died. 



There seems to be no reason to doubt, then, that Northampton County 

 has long been infected, and that the cattle from that section when 

 driven among susceptible animals produce the same fatal results as has 

 long been recognized to follow a similar moveanent of Texas and Gulf- 

 coast cattle. The infected part of Accomack County is very narrow, 

 perhaps not more than 5 miles wide, and it is said that the disease is 

 more malignant toward the seacoast than it is in the parts which border 

 on the bay. This is in harmony with the fact that southern fever is 

 known to have existed along the seacoast in North Carolina and Virginia 

 for many years before it invaded the interior. 



A careful investigation of the counties north of the Rappahannock 

 River failed to reveal any trace of the disease. Not only were all the 

 cattle apparently in good health, but imported cattle had remained free 

 from disease after their introduction. Several instances were related 



