The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-01-31
Keening Animals Healthy.

seldom considered by agriculturssts ex-
cept when disease is actually present
among their an mails, and then it is ire
quenlly / oked upon more as vista
ton of Providence than the result of in
di terence to the laws which govern ami
NAL Ii e. So lon = as animals remain
their owners are usually salts
ed TO let what they consider ''well
enough" alone: but when sickness does
come, they are seldom prepared to COM
bat it. 1t is not the loss sustained in
the death of the animals fir t diseased in
a herd that should be considered, but
what may follow; for when stricken by
disease they often become sources o
danger to other species, as well as to
mankind.
The bite of rabid dog may cause the
death of many other animals besides the
dog; so the wells nown disease of the
horse, glanders. may pass to the groom
or Others who may come within Its in
tluence; and the tape-worm so common
in sheep in cer,ain regions of our coun-
try may prove q direful calamity to
hundreds who are so unfortunate as to
eat the in ected mutton. these and
many other diseases of domestic animals
are directly transmissible from the
lower to hi her, or from animals to
nan onsequently the health of the
Drmer becomes subject of the great
st importance. and too h care can
carcely be taken to maintain health as
- protect We measure. ii for no other
! urpose.
1t is not always an easy matter 10
hNce disease from man back to its
sourcs among the lower animals, even
Wien we e quite certain that it orig
in: tie | among them, for many OF the
moe common diseases change in ap-
pearance, and do not invari bly, pre- ent
the same characterist cs by which they
are usually identified; hence glanders in
horses IN Y pass to man, and in the lrt-
Ter receive quite another name. Hun
dreds of persons have, no doubt, in
days gone by, d ed from the attacks OF
trIchina, when the presence of this mi
mite parasite was not suspe ted by at
tending physicians; and even If it had
been discovered, the hog would not
have been accuse of be ng the animal
guilty of distributing itamong mankind.
Another d sease OF swine known 1T
present rs hog cholera, and of late pre-
alent in most of the Western States,
VIII lie not supposed to be transmissible
TO other animals, must render their flesh
unfit for human food. How many in
from which is packed for market, i of
course unknown, but it is safe TO con-
clude that the ,,uantity is very large in
a country where there is no Government
supervision over such matters, and
farmers, when the disease is sweepi g
away hun reds per week in a county or
town, are not very likely to hesitate to
save themselves from severe losses if it
can be done by anticipating the killing
time by few days or weeks. The same
may be said of other DIS ases of ami
mails, AMI many an q ling steer and
lever. SIN tten COW or fuke-infected
sheep has gone 10 the shambles. when
their proper place was in the ground,
and that, too. w tn their LA kets on"
Alth ugh much has been said and
written about bad meat from animals
sent To our large cities in close, i'll
ventilated cars, such meat is neverthe-
less less dangerous as 1ood than that
found in the stalls of country and village
butchers, which very frequently is from
such animals as we have referred to
above, and of quality that would not
pass inspection in our CITY markets. 1t
certainly speaks well for the cl mate of
the United States that we have so few
diseased animals, considering the neg
lect of large majority of our farmers
TO pay the least regard to the simplest
laws of hygiene. From the State of ILL
uois westward to the Rock Mountains,
we find hundreds and thousands of
herds. large and small, that get all the
water they drink during the summer
months from stagnant pools, artificial or
natural, scattered here and there over
the prairies and plains. The water in
these pools is that drained from the
surrounding surface during the rainy
season, or from melting SHOWS, and
nat rally this water takes with it the
rilth from the surface OF the soil; and
even if it appears to be at first clear and
pure, it soon becomes extremely filthy
rom the dropp ngs of the animals fire.
uuent.ng it These hollows or m d
holes arc the principal source from
which stock on the Western plains get
water to drink, although in the valleys
| and along streams they fare better, but
often not much better, as large pro-
norton of the brooks dry up in summer,
or near the mountains are polluted with
the mud from placer mines or chemicals
and pulp from the mills.
How all these abuses are to be recti-
| fed it would be difficult to determine,
or, rs q recent European veterinarian
mas said "The art of preserving health
embraces large and varied field of hu-
man knowledge. comprehending all the
conditions and requirements of universal
existence Among these are the in
uences of climate, of habitaticn, air.
ood, water, and employment hy eli
mate i understood all those influences
that cause a region to be hot or cold
| wet or dry, due to differences Of at :
| tude latitude, proximity to the sea, or
Il ct 4 A.. lo
'ountry healthy for man will be found
the same for all or nearly all o. our do
mesticated an 'ma!s,
In low-lying marshy lands cattle are
Is likely to suffer from fever as the in
habitants, and we ha g only to look to
he malarial and yellow lever infe ted
| districts of the South and West to find
| the home of that virulen maiady known
as the Texas cattle fever Ali marshy
d stricts are especially injurious to
health during hot summers, when the
surface of the ground is exposed to
| heat n ter be ng covered with water
| In low wet grounds in cool climates the
diseases known as foot rot in catte
and ''liyer rot'' in sheep are ALWAYS
more or less alb ndant than in the high.
| dry and arid. but 8 ock are seldom as
healthy; consequently what is gained
| N one direction is usually lost in an
| other.
The ordinary farmer who has no
prevalent cl matte disease to combat
need only give his animals proper food
and shelter to keep them almost or en-
tirely empt from disease. He should
rely m"re upon keeping his animals in
a condition to resist diseases than upon
the use of medicines when maladies ap-
! pear among them. The weak, poor
and old animals are usually the first to
fail victims to any of the internal or ex-
ternal parasites which are known to r.
fest stock. for the very good reason that