The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-01-17
HOG CHOLERA AND PREVENTA-
TIVES.
How the Disease is Handled in In
diana.

How the Disease is Handled in In
diana,
At a meeting of the state agricul-
tural board of Indiana last week
among other matters discussed was
that of hog cholera. On that subject
we clip the following from the In
dianapolis Journal, which will be of
interest to hog raisers in this section:
Judge e. b. Martindale, who is one
of the most successful hOg-raisers in
the state and who has not had case
of cholera in his herd in ten years,
read a paper on the care of hogs, with
the thought of keeping them free
from cholera as his main point. Ac-
cording to his stauementif the farmer
can avoid hog cholera he can afford to
sell his hogs at So to 81 hundred
pounds, and then make more than on
any other crop produced. This price
would mean 30 cents to 40 cents
bushel for the corn he feeds without
the expense of hauling the corn to
market. Hog cholera is like the many
infectious disease from which the hui
man race suffers; it originates in filth.
perience as hog raiser:
"For the first few years L pursued
what you would term hap-haZard
method. | supposed hog-wallow
was a good thing, and paid little at
tention to the water they had to
drink, feeding only by throwing them
corn in the ear on the ground. l had
hog cholera two years, and lost IS per
cent. of my herd. After the fifth
year / provided a feeding lot for fat
tening hogs, containing some five
acres of ground being forty rods in
length and twenty rods in width, on a
hillside | provided grain bin and
feeding platform at one end OF the
lot. Above this lot there was a min
eral spring, which had been allowed
to run at random on this hillside, and
from which the hogs would drink at
pleasure / cleaned this and walled
it up, and then connected it with
watering trough, from which the
overflow ran into tile drain. The
trough is slated across the top, and
the hogs cannot get into it to- make
it dirty.
make it a point to keep charcoal,
made from corn cObS, in the pen at
all times Since 1885 | have marketed
from this lot over 1000 head of hogs.
There has been hog cholera all around
my farm from year to year. One year
it was among my brood sowS, and
many of them died, but there has
never been a case of cholera in this
pen"
Mr. Martindale spoke of the effort
that is now being made by the state
board of commerce to gather infor-
nation on hog cholera, together with
as much information of practical eX
perience in its treatment as possible,
and asked that the members of the
board of agriculture do all they can to
further the gathering of this infOr-
nation.
A DR.. J. n. Hurry read paper on
''cholera as a scientific study" in
which after discussing the relation of
bacteria to disease said:
The conditions of life and the prop
agation of the cholera germ and how
it may be exterminated is what the
swine breeder wishes especially to
know Prevention of the disease may
be summed up in one word-cleanli-
ness. Give the swine pure, clean
soil to live upon, pure water to drink
and pure food to eat. The cholera
germ lives in darkness and in filth.
Deny it these and il will not plague
you. Judge Martindale has not had a
single case Of cholera in ten years,
yet he markets carload Of hogs every
ninety days. The freedom from
cholera in his herd is not an accident.
He provides clean table for them to
eat upon, gives them Sloping clean
ground, pure drinking water, and
gives 1t from a Slated trough to pre-
Aent it's being foul. The overflow
from the trough is conducted in pipes
outside of the hog field to prevent
wallOwS. The hog is clean animal.
1t is certainly mistaken idea that he
desires or needs any kind of wallUw.
Judge Martindale never gives refuse
food. Proper food in proper quaint
titles are provided.
PLAINLY the way to cure hog
cholera is not to have it. Don't
therefore, invite the disease by pro-
viding the conditions that produce
it and then try to right matters by
giving medicine. If the cholera in
vades your herd in spite of all your
cleanliness, know then that you have
not been sufficiently clearly and care
full. ] add the word careful for it is
an easy matter to transfer disease
on clothes and boots and wagon wheels
from an infected herd. Such an act
is not only careless, but is actually
uncleanly.