Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-08-20
CATTLE FEVER DREADED IN SOUTH.
Where II Originates Methods for Kidding
Pastures Of the Fever Tick.
fThe State.1

Cattle fever is the general name
of disease among our cattle that
the stock raisers of this State are
only too familiar with. It occurs
every summer and fall and is known
by several names, the principal being
Southern fever, Texas fever, Sple-
netic fever, Red Water and Tick
fever-Southern fever because it
originated only in the Southern
States, Texas fever because Texas
is the greatest cattle raising State
and the most Southern, therefore has
more cases than any other State;
Red Water fever because of the
hemorrhages from the kidneys dur
ing the last stages of the fever
Splenetic fever because post mortems
show the spleen to be excessively
enlarged and discolored; Tick fever
because the United States Bureau of
Animal Industry insists that the cat
tie tick is responsible for the dis
ease.
The bureau has issued many bulle-
tins and cited many instances to
prove its theory, but, unfortunately
for the Southern cattle raiser, all
treat Of the disease in the territory
lying north of the quarantine line,
and nearly all the Investigations of
the bureau have been confined to the
territory affected by the transmitted
disease and not in the territory of
original Infection. We do not DENY
that the tick transmits the disease to
Northern cattle in Northern terri
tory and to certain extent in
Southern territory, but the expert
ence of IL years of close study in the
home of the disease proves to us
that the tick is not responsible for
the disease in the Southern States.
The writer has inspected many herds
of cattle in this State and has found
the fever raging in herds that never
carried a tick, and, vice versa, has
found herds, every head of which
was covered with ticks and fever
never prevailed. In one herd of
Chester county the loss from fever
each year for number of years was
from five to fifteen head and there
was not single tick to be found a
close study of this herd was made,
individual animala were noted as
they grazed and record kept of where
they grazed mostly; six COWS were
noted as going to a certain place in
the pasture (pasture contained about
300 acres) every morning and graz
ing until satisfied, and these were the
first to contract the fever and had
the most violent attacks, three of
them dying. This spot of an acre
in extent was fenced out of the pas
ture and not another case occurred
that year, 1890, nor has case oc-
Cured in that herd since, though the
same pasture is used year after year.
This led to the theory that the
germ was received from the soil and
/ the same measures of prevention
have been used dozens of times all
over the State and have not failed a
single time in IL years. Herds that
were visited every year by the
plague have been free from it since
the pasture was inspected and the
poisonous spots fenced out. Some
carried ticks and some did not, some
have them now and some have not,
bat none have fever.
The disease is more prevalent this
year than usual and promises to be-
come raging later in the summer and
fall unless conditions change mate
rally; the object of this article is to
bring to the attention of the stock
raisers of this State the fact that
nothing is being done by us or by
the government to lessen the losses
or to prevent the annual occurrence
OF the fever. The government has
devoted practically all its efforts to
the northern territory where the dis
easc never originates, but is always
transmitted and has done very little,
if anything, for the South, where the
disease originates, but is transmitted
to very limited degree. We find
the Northern cattle protected by a
set of stringent quarantine laws
which prevent the Northern move.