The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-07-16
From the Journal of the American Agri-
cultural Association.
The Lung Plague.

The Lung Plague.
Into Australia the infection was
carried from England in the body
of a Short-horn COW. She was
three months on the voyage out, and
had been FORTNIGHT at Melbourne
when she was noticed i'll. The sick
COW, together with all of her own
er's (Mr. Doodle J herd were slaugh-
tered and paid for by public sub
scription, and his premises shut up.
This would have ended the matter
had rot teamster turned his oxen
on Mr.. Boobies rich and secluded
pastures at night and removed them
before daylight. These working
oxen contracted the disease, and had
spread it too widely for control be-
fore its existence was suspected.
Tens of thousands of cattle were
killed in the vain hope of arresting
the plague; it quickly spread from
Victoria to the other colonies, and
the stock owners had to fall back
on the palliative of incubation, or
turn their attention to sheep.
The only other importation into
America that need be named is that
of the infected COW bought by Peter
Dunn of Brooklyn from the captain
of an English ship in 1913. This
was placed in Dunn's milk stable,
near South Ferry, where she soon
sickened and died, but conveyed the
infection to the other occupants of
the building. From those it spread
to other stables in the vicinity, and
soon the whole of Brooklyn was in
volved Among others the distil-
lery stables in Skilman street were
early infected, and there the disease
prevailed as long as those stables
were kept in use. There it was
seen and recognized by the Massa-
chusetts Commissioners in 1863,
twenty years after its introduction
AS the cattle from infected herds
could be bought at reduced prices,
dealers naturally availed of this, and
by the movement and sale of such
cattle the malay soon spread to
the adjacent cities of New York,
Jersey City, Newark, &c, as well
as for limited distance into coun-
try districts. Repeated extensions
into Connecticut were recognized
and stamped out. Not so the extern
sions to the South. The disease ex-
tended from town to town, and from
city to city, through New Jersey,
Eastern Pennsylvania and Mary
land, and finally reached Virginia
and the District of Columbia' In
its progress it was recognized by
Jennings, Kitchener, Gamgee and
others; and spasmodic attempts
were made to stamp it out in cir
cumscrihed localities, but as there
was no uniform nor concerted &C
ton the good effects were merely
local and temporary, and the plague
moved on its course with but little
real interruption.
The Bovine Long Plague has
period of incubation extending in
some cases to three months and
half Io4 davs). This long incuba-
ton was fulfilled in the Ayrshires
that infected Norway, the short
horns that infected Australia, the
Dutch bull that infected South AT
RIGA, and in cow that carried the
infection with her to the east end
of Long Island, April 18th, 1879,
and was observed to be i'll August
10th. During all this period the
most skillful expert will fail to de-
tect the slightest indication or i'll
health, and in such case the exam
ination of the individual animal can
give no guarantee whatever. Even
careful examination of the entire
herd may reveal nothing though the
seeds of the plague are present, and
it is only a series of examinations of
the entire herd extending over the
period OF the longest incubation
go to III days. that can give an
assurance of safety.
The infection of our great cattle
raising district west of the Missis-
sippi will entail the permanent in
lection of the entire country. Let
the infection be once conveyed to
Texas or the Plains and it will
speadily spread over all those great
unfenced territories as it has done
in similar conditions in all parts of
the world-in Asia, Europe, South
Africa and Australia. Even around
our large Eastern cities the disease
has been mainly preserved for thir-
ty six years by reason of the pro-
miscuous pasturage of the dairy
cows on the unbuilt lots and un-
fenced commons around those cities.
These have repeated on small scale
the historic experience of the differ
ent countries named on their COM
paratively boundless open pastures.
Often has this affection been carried
out to agricultural districts, where
the cattle were kept in inclosed
pastures at great distance from all
other animals, and as often have
such outbreaks died out spontane-
ously when all the stock had been
infected, the subsistence having
been simply from lack of fresh and
susceptible subjects. The
infection of our unfenced cattle ran