266 
JAMES D. HOPKINS. 
have been bred to shelter and hay-stacks. These cattle are turned 
into the enclosed ranches, with no other shelter than wire fence 
and partially fed on hay or left to “rustle.” In this country 
there is forty decrees difference between noon and midnight in 
summer. In consequence of these hardships, many outbreaks of 
disease developed, and were it not for the investigation of the 
sanitary authorities the industry would have been ruined by the 
rumors of mortality among such cattle. I am glad to say that the 
people begin to properly appreciate the necessity of more intelli¬ 
gent management in this matter. 
The diseases most common in this class of cattle are pneumonia, 
pleurisy, hydro-thorax, enteritis, tuberculosis and abortion. Among 
horses glanders prevails. During the past year I have condemned 
and had destroyed under the laws 62 horses and mules. 
Black-leg in caLes and braxy in sheep was the cause of con¬ 
siderable mortality two years ago. But more judicious feeding 
and care has checked the disease. Two outbreaks of verminous 
bronchitis occurred last year, due to the importation of calves 
from Iowa; a proper quarantine of the pastures prevented its re¬ 
currence. Owing to the great extent of this territory, I am un¬ 
able to give statistics as to the numbers affected or the mortality, 
as I seldom make over one visit to a locality, and the owners rarely 
know of their own losses. 
Last year, through the importation of cattle from Texas by 
railroad into Nebraska and Colorado, over 5,000 native cattle on 
the range died of Texas fever. Hog cholera invaded the eastern 
part of Nebraska last August (1881), and over $1,000,000 worth 
of swine died. As many of the farmers of that region depended 
on their swine crop to meet outstanding engagements, its failure 
has caused much financial distress. 
During the past spring and summer I have been engaged in 
the maintenance of a rigid quarantine against cattle imported from 
the Western States into this Territory. Cattle from east of the 
Missouri river, to enter this Territory without quarantine, must 
present proof of having been held four months on one farm, and 
that no cattle had been added to the herd during that period, and 
that no contagious disease has existed in the herd or vicinity- 
