256 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



County. The laws of the State, however, make the Blue Ridge the Hue, 

 and prohibit the movement of cattle from the eastern counties at all 

 seasons of the year. 



SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA. 



The whole territory of South Carolina seems to hive been overrun 

 with this infection. The Blue Ridge Mountains, which form a part of 

 the northwestern boundary of the State, have here been crossed by this 

 contagion and are no longer to bo considered as the line. The infected 

 district beyond these mountains is, however, at present of small extent, 

 and the advance is so slow as to be scarcely appreciable. 



The small portion of Georgia which has heretofore been considered 

 free from this infection is being rapidly overrun ; and it is now doubt- 

 ful if any of even the northern tier of counties can be considered entirely 

 free. The mountain sec' ions are not so thoroughly infected, and it is 

 probable that Towns, Union, and Fannin Counties are practically free 

 from the permanent infection. 



Whitfield and Murray Counties have been quite thoroughly inspected 

 and the commons of both found to be infected in all parts. Many of 

 the farms are also infected, but some still remain free, especially near 

 the northern boundary. Cattle taken from these counties to the mount- 

 ain ranges of Gilmer for pasture have not so far as has been ascertained 

 caused any outbreaks of disease. This is probably due to the fact that 

 Gilmer Couaty is also pretty thoroughly overrun. 



Here, as in rn-any other localities, there are evidences of a different in- 

 tensity of the contagion in various parts of the counties, but more par- 

 ticularly in different sections of the State. Thus, cattle which have 

 pastured on the ordinary infected ranges of Whitfield County without 

 harm, have become diseased as a consequence of feeding along the trails 

 and on the commons where cattle from Southern Georgia had lately 

 grazed. The movement of bovine animals from one farm to another or 

 from one county to another is also considered dangerous. The fatigue 

 induced by driving is without doubt one of the factors in producing 

 the disease in such cases. Even cattle from the extreme south often 

 succumb when exhausted by long journeys. Similar facts have long 

 been noticed with other diseases, and particularly with anthrax, cattle 

 which have resisted .the contagion on the infected farms becoming vic- 

 tims to the virus already within their bodies, when their vital resistance 

 is lowered by great fatigue. 



At Dalton there is a probability that permanent infection existed be- 

 • fore the war, but not to the same extent as at present. The cattle 

 driven from South Georgia to provision the armies, and later those 

 brought by the refugees returning to their homes, are believed to have 

 been the means of distributing and intensifying the contagion throughout 

 Northwest Georgia. 



TENNESSEE. 



The line of the infected district crosses the boundary line between 

 Georgia and Tennessee near the western slope of the mountains, and fol- 

 lows a northwesterly direction to Parkville and Benton, in Polk County; 

 then its direction is nearly directly west to Cleveland, Bradley County, 

 and to Snow Hill and Harrison, in James County. From this point the 

 river becomes the line across Hamilton County, Chattanooga and the 

 Chickamauga Valley, having been infected for a long time. The south- 

 western part of Polk and the southern parts of Bradley, James, and 



