Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-08-19
agricultural.
The Cattle Plague in Illinois i.

good deal of excitement prevails In Hi
nois relative to the infection spread among
stock by the cattle received from Texas,
which have been sold into or pastured in va
rious portions of the State. Indignation
meetings have been held and vigilance COM
mittees appointed to prevent the landing of
any OF these cattle from boats or railways at
any point, or their passage through the
country in droves. The cattle in the Chic
ago stock yards are said to be absolutely I'M
saleable at any price, owing to the excite
ment that has arisen. The Texan cattle are
said TO be exempt from the disease which
they spred. They arc arriving at Chicago in
large numbers, but buyers are holding off
till a commission composed of Professors
Blaney, Richardson and Gamgee, who
investigating the matter, make their report.
On the 4th inst. Prof. Gamgee, who is
Princip pal of the Albert Veterinary College,
London, made statement to the Pork Pack
ers' Association in Chicago, giving the re-
suit of his Investigations thus far. After
detailing the symptoms of the disease, which
have heretofore been described, he remarked :;
g In the first place, the malady follors the
track of Texas cattle, and is not found be
yond. The Texas cattle are themselves
healthy, and we have failed yet to see dis
eased one. Native cattle do not communi-
cate the disease to other native cattle, and
sucking calves continue to suckle their sick
mothers without contracting the disease
In one case a calf sucked its dam till
the latter died it then placed with a
cow that also died and lastly with third
one that succumbed too, without indicating
the slightest symptoms of i'll health.
Secondly, L consider that there is no speci-
fc animal poison causing the spread of the
disease. 1t is not a malady belonging to the
class of true plaques epizootics it has a
local origin, from cattle grazing certain
lands in Texas, and if you took cattle South
and grazed them where the Texas steers en-
joys perfect health, from being accimatized
and accustomed to peculiar pastures, you
will find the cattle of the North dying in the
South as they are doing at present in the
State of Illinois.
It is not an uncommon circumstance for
animals which are themselves healthy, being
the carriers of disease-producing elements,
though there Is something unusually virulent
discharged by the Texan herds, and dis
charged only during the summer months.
This malady has been classed in Europe
by some authors, among the forms of an
thrax or carbuncn lar fevers, which originate
spontaneously where there it sufficient heat
Ill drained retentive soils, and widely over
the marsh lands of Central, Southern and
Eastern Europe
But, gentlemen, it is consolation to know
that there is not the slightest danger of any
evil arising from the-drinking of the milk of
the sick COWS, and should have no scruples
In eating the flesh. Theyhre not poisoned by
any specific virus calculated to do injury to
men or animals, and in laying before you
theory of the origin of this diseas, | am
strengthened by facts which l have cleaned
during investigations of similar disorders In
Europe
About spring time and early summer, in
all probability, the Texas cattle eat, as our
n = l.
succulent shoots of peculiar trees, highly
charged with astringent principles. On I'M
broken ground, highly charged with mois-
ture, and adjoining wood lands, there are, as
the hot weather sets in, many things spreut-
ing which animals will not touch later in the
season and in the motifs of Texas there is
the live oak which grows in the Gulf States,
where, indeed, cattle are reared which have
been known In times past to disseminate this
disorder, for the cattle of Florida are as dam
gerous north of certain line as the steers of
Texas From this peculiar feed, therefore.
the animals get their systems impregnated
with materials which do not destroy the
stock accustomed to a special living in a Civ
en- latitude, but which being thrown off in
the urine and the excrements induce the
$. black water - or peculiar form of 's enzoo-
tic haematuria, - which is now killing the
cattle of this and adjoining States.
Certain it is that Texas cattle imported
here during the winter from the 18th of Sep
TENDER to the 18th of April. induce no dis
ease, and while it is undoubtedly safe to
have open season for the Texan Cattle traffic,
it is probable that in accordance with my
suggestion we shall have a ready means of
purifying stock on the frontier by keeping
them for while on a special food, admins
tering medicines, and carefully disinfecting
II the excreates they deposit. Of this, how