74 
D. E. SALMON. 
According to the estimates of the Statistical Division 
there are about 50.300,000 hogs in the United States. The 
inoculation of these at 50 cents per head would cost $25,150,- 
ooo, The total loss from disease during the year 1888 was 
3,105,000 hogs at an average value of $5.79 each. This 
would make the total loss of swine from all disease $17,980,- 
000. In order to estimate the loss from hog cholera we must 
deduct from this sum the losses from ordinary diseases, such 
as animal parasites, exposure, overcrowding, and improper 
feeding, which are always acting and do not produce epizoo¬ 
tic diseases. These losses were estimated bv the Statistician 
of the Department in 1886 to be about 4 per cent, of the total 
number of hogs, but as this may be considered rather a large 
estimate, we will in our calculation take 3. per cent, as the 
average loss from such causes. This would amount in 1888 to 
1,509,000, valued at $8,737,000, and deducting this from the 
total loss of swine, we have remaining $9,243,000 as the losses 
from epizootic swine diseases. In the present condition of 
our knowledge we must admit that there are at least two en¬ 
tirely distinct epizootic diseases of hogs, which have been re¬ 
ferred to in the reports of this Bureau as hog cholera and 
swine plague. The exact proportion of the loss caused by 
each of these diseases is at present unknown, but if we admit 
for the purposes of this calculation that but one-third of the 
loss is caused by swine plague, we have remaining a loss of 
but $6,163,000 for the year 1888, which can be attributed to 
hog cholera. To prevent this disease by inoculation, as we 
have just seen, requires the expenditure in cash of $25,150,- 
000, or more than four times the value of the actual losses. 
In addition to this expenditure there should be counted the 
time required of the farmer in handling the hogs at the time 
of the operation and in giving them such precautionary care 
and in practicing such disinfection as is required to make this 
operation at all successful. 
We should reach the same conclusion if, instead of esti¬ 
mating the loss and expense for the whole of the United 
States, we should take a single hog-raising State, as for ex¬ 
ample the State of Illinois. According to the Statistician’s 
