The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-24 00:00:00

CAUSE OF TIIR TEXAN CATTLE

DISEASE.

A startling statement was made by Mr. Gould
before the Social Science Meeting at Albany, Feb.
18, to the effect that the cattle disease which had
attacked the droves from Texas last year was attri-
butable to the cruel manner in which the animals
were driven. The drovers sometimes drive them
ninety miles during the first two days, which leaves
them in an over-heated, worn out, starved state.
Then they cat a Texan grass wherein grows a small
cryptogarnous plant, propagating itself, like all
cryptogams, by spores, the effect of which is thus
described These spores are constantly taken
into the stomach of the ox grazing where they
are found, but in his healthy condition they ara
harmless. When the creature is heated, how-
ever, by over-driving, a condition of the stomach
is produced in which these spores germinate, and in
their growth they draw directly on the blood cor-
uscles, and deprive them of their vigour, sucking
up the very essence of the blood. From this comes
disease, which attacks and ulcerates the fourth
stomach, or digestive apparatus of the ox, causing
rapid decline and death, unless the progress of the
malady is stopped. If it is stopped, and the ani-
mal recovers, he never regains complete health, an 3
cannot so readily be fattened, because his ulcerated
stomach, when healed, loses a portion of its diges-
iive power, and cannot dispose of all the food put
into it." The average loss of weight in the beasts
between Texas and Illinois is from one to three
hundred pounds, and from Illinois to New York
one hundred pounds more. Mr. Gould cited the
experience of Mr. Alexander, the greatest cattle
raiser in Illinois, whose sales are reckoned by the
ten thousand, and who says that it takes a hundred
bushels of corn-6,000 pounds—to carry an to
through the winter, without adding a pound to bi°
weight. And why does it take so much? Because in
Illinois there is no shelter for cattle in the winter,llo
separate stalls or feeding places, but each animal is
compelled to struggle and fight with scores or hun-
dreds of others for the food he gets. Under such cir-
cumstances he will not grow fat, while if he were
cared for as eastern cattle are, the 6,0001 b. of corn
would produce five or six hundred pound of flesh, in-
stead of only keeping him in the flesh he had at first.
A. Texan steer weighing I,ooolbs. costs the drover
but $4O in the New York market, where they sell
for $lOO, and the difference is the loss caused 11
the c nel treatment which destroys the animal.,
"If th,,se facts can be relied on," says the Springfield
Republican, "and we have no reason to doubt thew,
the high price and poor quality of meat is largely
due to cruelty and carelessness in bringing the
Texas cattle to market. Considering that Tesss
now his 12,000,000 of cattle, and that these increase
rapidly—having quadrupled in nine years—it is of
the utmost consequence to check, and, if possible:
prevent the Texan fever from infecting these great
herds, and thus spreading over the country. 'l'o do
this legislation will be needed, and we hope that
our Massachusetts cattle commissioners, co-operat-
ing. with the society for preventing cruelty to an'
nuts, will see to it that we do our part in the legis
lation requisite, daring the present session °f
the General Court." One of the last acts of oar
Fortieth Congress was to appropriate $15,000 f 0
investigation of the subject.