Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-04-03
Jersey-Duroos and ..Cholera. ;.

Cor. kansas City Livestock Indicator.
In your valuable paper of Feb. 21st,
Dr. A. NJ. Edison gives some interesting
lacts about Duroc-J ersey Swine; but the
claim that the ''pure-bred or even half
breed Reds were never known to take
the hog cholera" is very erroneous. 1t
is surprising that a physician II suppose
ne Is one fro q the prefix DRY should
be led to accept a theory so repugnant TO
all physiological laws! What is there
In the peculiar make up of that breed
that should make it invulnerabls when
all others are subject to disease? If the
DR.. can substantiate the claim his favorite
breed will drive all others out of the
United States in very few years but
his claim is utterly untenable. Swine
Plague or fever (the sO-called chOleTa)
Is very much like typhoid fever in
the human family. There is such
striking similarity that many
physicians claim the diseases are
identical. Now, the Dr. might as we'll
claim that people of sanguineous tenn
permanent will never have typhoid fever I!
If he can show that Duroc-J Jerseys are
constituted differently from other swine
then there will be some plausibillty In
the claim. When Cholera" first came
around, farmers claimed that the i'm
and they longed for the return of the
elm Peelers." But they soon learned
that the cholera was sweeping the land
pixies from the healthful mountain pin
cries of North Carolina and Tennessee.
One year agJ when | was in Arkansas
learned the fatal disease had devastated
the ranges in some new counties; reIla-
BILE citizens told me they had seen as
many as ten dead hogs in one bed, when
they had a range of a million acres of
forest, and their hogs were pure-bred
(scrub.) If their pedigree had been
kept they would have traced to the
landing of G. Columbus; so that pet
theory had TO vanish. About ten years
ago an enterprising man appeared at our
county fair with herd of the Reds. He
was loud in their praise, They won't
take the cholera" said he. Some believed,
but others doubted, for they thought all
hogs were born to die. An old neigh Dor
of mine bought pair Of shOats. and sat
on the pen during the fair to sing their
praise-"they won't take the cholera. .
Next Spring he was delighted with lit
ter of full bloOded pigs and a fine crop
of halEblood stock. At harvest his stock
| looked well. But in a few weeks the
| cholera" called for the red SOW and
pigs and nearly all the half blOods; only
the boar was left to tell the story
Strange to say, none of his neighbors
with their Poland-China, Berkshire and
Essex hogs, suffered a single attack. The
disease confined itself to the farm Of the
Reds! I don't remember of seeing red
hog on our fair ground since. How often
and easily men are misled by whims and
illusions! AS well claim that a short
horn will not take the murrain or a
Clydesdale take the distemper, and that
an Indian will not take the fever. When
1 ship my Poland China pigs all my Gus
toners understand that the fates have
not so hedged about the pigs, but that
they are susceptible to disease. And that
fact is true of all animated nature.
D. L. THOMAS.
Rushville, Ind, March Sd, '84.