Omaha daily bee., 1884-12-02
PLAGUE OF CiRELESSNESS.
rhG Cattle and Hrg Diseases ia NtbTa,&a
and The Cause.
The ltemedy In the Hands Of the
Farme rs-CAre and Watch
fuIness Necessary.

Much has been said and written con
corning the hog cholera and the mystsri.
Gus disosae which is proving disastrous
to cattle in various portions of the state,
From interviews with prominent farmers
in Douglas county, the BEE recently zen.
tured the opinion thai the disease In cat.
tie was not primarily caused by smut in
corn, but by overlooking. This opinion
was fortified by one Of the most careful
and intelligent farmers in Sarpy county,
Mr., Michael Dunn, whose w~atchfulness
and care has prevented the loss of a sim
gle animal in his herd. In answer to in.
quiries as 10 the cause Of the disease
among cattle, Mr.. Dunn said, substan,
italy:
~ am convinced that it is caused by
ov~er.feeding. There may be smut in the
corn, but the effect of hat can be easily
overcome by the simplest method. When
| turn my cattle into cornfelds
l never leave them there more
than two hours, and going and coming
from there / give them all the spring
water they will drink and plenty of salt.
This will overcome the effect of smut and
aid them in digesting what they have
eaten. Most farmers neglect this entire
ly, and turn their cattle from grass lard
into cornfieids where the rich and juicy
stalks and dropped corn tempt them to
gorge themselves, and once in that condi.
ton 1t is next to impossible to prevent
death. l have seen in the stomachs Of
cattle killed by overesting the stalks and
corn az dry as when they were taken from
the field. Plenty Of pure water and salt
and hnitii g their time in TO two hours q
day will, / am convinced, prevent the
disease which is now causing 60 much loss
to farmers. That has been my experience
and l have not lost q head. I have talked
with several Of my neighbours who have
adopted this method and ito SUCCESS is
shown by the fact that they have not lost
a single animal this fall
HOG CHOLERA.
"Is the hog cholera raging in Sarpy
county,"
Eyes, but it is not general, There
has been many fatal cases in the neigh
borhood of Foreut City and other places.
have been feeding Us many as sixty
head and have not lost any. l tell you
1t Id as contagious ANA spreads as easily
as cholera in the human. The old gay
ing that ar ounce Of prevention is better
than q pound OF cure ia illustrated in this
disease. Ii We had q stringent law, with
heavy penalties for violation; compelling
farmers to Immediately bury ell hogs
dying of the disease, 1t would be one of
the best laws that could be put upon the
books il enforced. Why, o man
who has walked through pens where the
is, can carry it from place to
place with hts boots; q dog or o wolf will
it. As q general thing when a
hog dieB the carcass is rolled down into q
near ravine or guiley, sometimes into a
creek. | have seen several caroasses
floating down the Plt tito river and l have
heard OF many being thrown into
streams in other pasto of the country.
There is a law against throwing dead bo-
dies into running streams CT water, but
no one attempts to enforce it. This is an
outrage and should be stopped. The
carcass of o dead hog will poison the
water OF q creek for quite q distance, and
spread tae disease the eatre length of
the stream
"What do you believe was the cause of
the disease!"
81 believe last years corM crop caused
it. A vast quantity of last years crop
not ripen and dry thoroughly before
the frost caught it. Farmers of course
the best of it tor market and
the poorer OF frozen corn for
In the spring when the frost was
thawed out of it the aobs and kernels
were literally alive with vermin. You
could not see them unless you examined
the ears closely. This kind of corn be-
fed to hogs raw was, l believe. the
primary cause of'the disease. OF course
It has spread by contaot. Every peddler
who buys hogs and drives Shem to mar
ket spreads it. | understand there are
men cut buying up the osroasses for soaps
factorien. That ought to DO stopped and
suthoritics of cities where such ~facto-l
are located, should watch for and
the trade, saw
n u paper recently the opin-
on OF a prominent doctor
If Chicago, that roa9 made from tho css.
asses OF hcgs killed by this disease is 10.
Die to spread the diseaae among the rso.
pie who use it IN washing either he
or face. Ho claimed that the
'en6ering of the carcnAs into LARD or
does not kill the germ of disoase.
This is a serious matter, and city aud
tate authorities should take steps to pre-
,ent the spread of ths disease and tts sale
e tho carcasses