The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-05-16
FARMER AND PLANTER.
HOG CHOLERA.


Methods Of RemedyIng, Restricting and
DISCRIMINATING the Disease.
just now good deal is being said
In the public press on the subject of
hog cholera. People are casting about
for remedies, means of restriction and
methods of DISCRIMINATING the disease.
This is an interest that awakened Pc
riodically, and always coincident with
an outbreak Of the disease. Last fall
| the farmers expeiie aced unusual fe.
talities among their swine from this
disease. All the causes which contrib
uted to the unusual extent OF this cpl
zootic may not be perfectly apparent,
| but certainly number, a very large
number of active centers were started
little more than year before through
shipping of hogs from the drouth-
| stricken districts of Nebraska. A mum.
Der of instances came under my obsor-
walton where such shipments We're fol.
lowed by outbreaks of the disease, in
| communities where the swine had been
| perfectly healthy up to that time.
frequently have the questions put
to me: What are we going to do?'
us there any remedy for this thing?"
"Can 1t be preyented?" and 50 On
through the list.
| For more than fifteen years l have
/, oeen saying, whenever the occasion
presented itself, and sometimes when
it did not, that the only rational
method of relief under the present
1 tot IF &c
lice regulations; that specific treat
ment must, from the very nature OF
things, fail of satisfactory results. /
do not know that can state my posi-.
ton on this question much better than
to give few extracts from one of the
first articles l ever wrote on the sub
ject. If not the first of my writings
on the question, it certainly embonies
the essentials of the first deliberate
dds of control.
The theory that the disease is not
contagious, but due to unhealthful
food and neglect of sanitary condi-
tions, is no longer entertained by any
investigator whose work in any sense
entities him to be regarded as author
ity. A diet of corn in a den of filth
can no more generate case of swine
plague than similar surroundings and
unwholesome food will develop small
pox in man. 1t is a specific type OF
disease. 1t comes from its own kind
and produces its own kind. Sections
of the state are to-day free from the
disease where a few years ago it ragged
with such violence that the production
of pork almost ceased for time
Other counties that were free from the
disease at that time had large part
of the pork crop swept away for two
or three years in succession. Yet the
conditions under which the animal
are kept in these different section,
have not changed in any essential fea
ture during these years. We mus
seek elsewhere than in dietetic ant
sanitary causes for an explanation o
these facts. The method o
. communication is not always obvious
but the instances are so numerous il
which the disease has been reproduce,
by accidental exposure and by expert
ments that the inference can not b
avoided that contagion is the cause o
! it's spread over the country.
1t is of material Importance in dealin,
= with the disease to know whether
p may develop spontaneously at a hun
y dred points in the stats, or whethe
there must be some method of com
4 municating the injecting material t
{ the unprotected animals. If its devel
s opment is spontaneous. then we hav
S little hope of ever freeing the countr
f from the scourge. Plans for eradicat
ing the disease would be no guarante
e against fresh outbreaks at any time
q There is little hope from therapeuti
agents. Hog cholera cures may be e,
, cellent commodities to SELL but so fla
: as my experience and observation g
!. they are poor class of property
. buy. 1t is my opinion that the none
sunk in these nostrums would bu
\ more pork in the market than it save
in the pen. u As with tn
t highly fatal epidemics, safety rests nc
!. in specific cures; but in proper metf
: DDS of prevention. Legislative il
reference can be interposed with in
portant results if properly directed
but this must look to stamping OF
the disease, not curing the sick an
mails. If proper, uniform legislatio
could be had in the several states, o.
). what would be much better, simila
legislation by the national congress
/ the disease could be eradicated in tn
4 country at a cost of 25 per cent. of til
total loss for one year. This coul
5 only be done by visiting every infecte
r community as soon as the disease mad
its appearance, and at once destroyin
: all infected swine, thoroughly dish
fecting the premises and imposin
such quarantine restrictions as woul
arrest of further infection. Railroa
cars, and all other conveyances use
for the transportation of swine, shoul
never be allowed to move from the ST
Il ton to which consignment was mao
until they have been thoroughly di
y infected. There would be much of d
tail in carrying into effect such sy
N. tenn, but nothing that is impractibl
N. So far as known, this is the only sy
az tenn that has in it reasonable ho]
of success.
Other discoveries may yet be MAJ
= that will throw additional light on tn