The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-11-10

DISEASE AMONG THE HOGs-HISTS TO
THE BOARD OF HEALTH.-The sale OF re-
fuse swill in distilleries Is, as most people
know, an incidental source of income to
the proprietors. tits used for feeding cows
and hogs, and, given in moderate quantities,
and with sufficient portion of solid food,
Is nutritious and economical. But cattle
confined to it as daily diet.lose their ctrd,
and the casein or essential property of the
milk Is wanting and the constant use of
such milk in families Is deleterious to health.
Hogs will subsist ON it and grow fat, but it
makes only fat, and not fibre or muscle, and
in cooking melts almost entirely to liquid.
That, like the milk of q swfll-fed cow, is
neither nutritious nor wholesome. But
many poor farmers and families, who keep
more stock than they have feed for, find 1t
n cheap, substitute for natural food at
fifteen or twenty cents barrel, and often
life in animals that might otherwise
starve. Horses also will eat it, but they
cannot labor on it. The demand, there
fore, is irregular, and insufficient for the
consumption of as much az is produced by
n distillery of much extent, and the pro-
prietors of such usually keep on hand q
stock Of hogs, often several thousand, Of
their own, to feed up their excess and
such hogs will generally grow well upon it
for some months. and if afterwards put to
corn, to finish with, may make fair bacon.
a distillery on Mayo's creek. on the Os-
horne turnpike, is one Of this class, and on
the resumption Of operations few months
since they laid in a stock Of thriving animals
to the number of several thousand. AS
these droves came in from the country,
having been accustomed to a solid diet
of mast or corn, the sudden change to
one entirely liquid was productive of
great mortality among them. At first the
loss was only from two to five in a day: but
the number has gone on increasing till for
several weeks past it cannot have been less
than from thirty to fifty day, and has now
become measlc epidemic, which, it is
feared, will leave few alive. The proprie-
tors, Of course, had made no arrangement
for the profitable disposal Of so many car
cases to secure the salvage, and so long rs
the daily loss was small they were thrown
into the creek, to find their way to the
James, or to feast the yultures that have
lately darkened the air by hundreds in that
vicinity. Had they f0reseen the possibility
of such heavy mortality they might have
is no part Of a hog but what has a money
value if obtained in large quantities--the
fat for soap, the bone and muscle for the
sugar-house or fertilizers, briStles for the
brlshmaker, skin for the saddler, and the
refuse for manure.
4 few were tished out of the water by
farmers in the neighborhood to convert into
fertilizers, every hundred weight Of the car
cases of which, dressed with sulphuricc
acid, or, more conveniently, with ground
plaster, and it's bulk increased with loan,
swamp muck, or leaves from the forest, is
worth as a dressing for crops more than a
four-horse wagon-lead Of ordinary manure.
But the public are in 10 small degree in
terested in the final disposal of these car
cases, and if sold to irresponsible persons
the conservators of the public health have
duties to perform which it is hoped will not
be neglected. Selected portions may be,
and it is said have been, offered by pre-.
tended bone-boilers, and may find Il
place on the stalls Of the cheap grocer or
butcher; and how is the lard of Il whole
some hog to be distinguished bya purchaser
from that of putrid animal? These re-
tiectons are not pleasant to those with
whom swine's flesh is 4 staple article
of food. and as matter Of public interest
we hope that the commendable intentions
of the dstillers in selling their salvage only
to professed soap-fat boilers will not be
| frustrated.