Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-11-16
HOG CHOLERA
WORRIES farmer
PERSONS ENGAGED IN RAISING
PORkERS IN IOWA ARE
AROUSED By MALADY.

Ames. Nov. 15.-Iowa farmers are
stirred up about hog cholera. Aroused
! by their enormous losses, they are get
ting ready to go to the legislature this
| winter with demand for at least
| $4,000 year to check this epidemic.
That sum would make 1T posslple
for the state veterinarian to fight the
disease to a standstill. and then put II
OF rout Yet, because the Legislature
has 50 far denied reasonable appro'
priation, hogs are dying by the hun
dreds of thousands. Director w. ).
Kennedy of the extension department.
at Iowa state college estimates that
this years loss will reach million
hogs, worth not less than $4,000, 900 as
pork, to say nothing of other millions
of value as breeding stock and for feed
ing with steers.
Produce Many Hogs.
"Iowa produces one-ffth of all the
hogs in the United States" says Mr..
Kennedy, yet it IS behind it's neighbor
states in fighting this enormous loss.
Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, California and other
states with much less at stake, are
giving from $4,000 to $4,000 year to
manufacture serum and distribute it
at cost. They are controlling the
epidemic, and they will in due time
stamp 1t out. Here we are giving our
state veterinarian a meager $5,O0O-
not enough to establish a plant and
pay one mans salary. He can't begin
to meet the situation; his hands are
tied because of a lack of funds.
eve need $4,000 year at least to
fight this $12,OO0,000 loss. Iowa must
arrange for the manufacture of serum,
and its distribution at cost. There is
no question about the value OF serum.
That has been demonstrated again and
again. If S ate Veterinarian Gibson
had been given the money to manufac-
ture enough serum cholera would have
been checked in every county in the
state long ago and stamped out. The
loss would have been limited to a few
til ,usands of hogs instead of a mil
lion.
Cholera Serum Wanted.
''At the college and experiment
station we are getting scores of let
.ers daily asking where serum can be |
obtained. We must answer that 1t |
cannot be bought except from private
who demand three
lines as much for their product as the !
state could sell it for, even then the
buyer isn't sure that the commercial
serum is good.
much worthless stuff is sold for
,ood money 1t costs the farmer his !
lollars and his hogs, both. There are
Llso fraudulent representatives. and
ures Of other kinds which are abso-
utely no good. There is only one
ound way to fight hog cholera. and
hat is through state aid, and the
owa farmer isn't getting 1t. He has
My this alternative: he may buy bad
erum or let his hogs die. He ought
o insist upon getting what is fair. His
interests alone are not at stake. The
tate of Iowa can't lose s12,o0O,ooo or
more in hogs without suffering"
How much Iowa farmers are
reused was reflected in the recent
og cholera meetings held In Wood
ury county under the auspices of the
ollege and the department Of agri-
ulture at Washington. Four meetings
we're held on farms where cholera
aged. Not less than $50 farmers at 1
ended one meeting. Some came from
orty miles away. Three men who
anne that far telephoned when they
we're eight or ten miles away, and
sked that the meeting be delayed I'M ,
il they could get there. "The farmers
re going to be heard this winter. /
avs Mr.. Kennedy, who saw them and
card what they said.