tion is given to this subject the animals preferred are Jerseys, Holsteins, shorthorns and their various crosses. The annual increase of animals, both for beef and dairy purposes, is small. The few animals raised for beef are of the common native stock, and they are sent to market at from one to four years of age. During the past three years a large number of young cattle have been shipped to western ranges. The markets are Mobile, Memphis, and New Orleans, and the cattle are shipped by both boat and rail. The cost of transportation is from $1 to $5 per head. No grain is fed, and the only cost is about $1 per head per annum for looking after and caring for the animal. Their condition in the summer, autumn, and early winter is good, but as they are provided with but little if any artificial shelter during the inclement season of the year, they are very poor in the spring. The loss for lack of proper attention during this season is given at from 2 to 10 per cent. Hollowhorn, hollow-tail, murrain, black-leg, buffalo gnats, and poverty are mentioned as causes of losses among cattle. Losses from these sources will average about 2 per cent.

ARKANSAS.

Common native cattle are the only animals bred and fed for the market in Arkansas. But little attention is paid to dairy interests, and but few of the better dairy breeds are to be found in the State. Where any attention at all is paid to the business the shorthorn and Jersey breeds are preferred. The annual increase of cattle is given all the way up from 10 to 60 per cent. The breed preferred for beef produc tion is the grade shorthorn, which is marketed from one to four years of age. Large numbers have been sold and driven to western ranges during the past few years. Memphis and Saint Louis are the markets. to which cattle are shipped from this State, to which points they are carried both by rail and by boat. The cost of transportation is from 50 cents to $3 per head. No grain is fed, and the cost of raising and fattening an animal is from $3 to $5. Additional railroads and lower rates of transportation are greatly needed. The per cent. of losses by disease among cattle is annually about 5 per cent. Murrain, hollow-horn, black-leg, black tongue, and Texas fever are mentioned as diseases which affect the animals of this State. But few if any cattle are driven into the State from Texas.

NEBRASKA.

Grade shorthorns is the breed most in use in this State for rearing and fattening for the market. No authentic data have been received as to the number of animals devoted to the dairy. The most acceptable breeds for dairy purposes are Jerseys, Shorthorns, and Holsteins, preference being given in the order named. Correspondents variously estimate the annual increase of cattle, some rating it as low as 10 per cent., while others believe the increase to be all the way from 50 up to 90 per cent. Shorthorn and Hereford grades are the breeds regarded as best adapted to meat production. They are usually marketed at the age of four years. Two-year-olds generally go into the hands of stockers, and are full fed on corn for one or two winters. Cattle are carried to market in common stock cars. The cost of transportation is $3.50 to Kansas City, $4.50 to Saint Louis, and $5.50 to Chicago. It costs $35 per head to grain feed and fatten auimals. The condition of cattle on farms and ranches is good from June 1 to January 1; the bal

ance of the year, if not well fed and sheltered, they are usually in very thin condition. The character of the shelters afforded during the winter season are barns, sheds, walls, timber and thickets, banks, bluffs, &c. The annual loss for lack of shelter is 5 per cent.

COLORADO.

Shorthorn and Hereford grades are the breeds most in use for fattening for beef. But little attention is paid to dairy interests. Where an interest is taken in this subject, the Jersey and shorthorn breeds seem to e preferred. The annual increase is variously estimated at from S to 95 per cent. Animals are usually sufficiently matured and fattened to be marketable at the age of three years. The cost of transportation is from $1 to $6 per head. The cost of rearing and fattening an animal on the range is from $6 to $10. No cattle are grain fed in this State. Stock is generally driven from the ranges to towns and cities in Colorado, where they are loaded on cars and shipped by rail to Denver, Kansas City, and other Eastern markets. For nine months in the year cattle remain in very good condition. About the only shelter they have during the winter season is in the timber and brush along the streams. The loss annually caused by exposure is at least 5 per cent. About 2 per cent. are lost by Texas fever, black-leg, and poison from loco-weed. Pneumonia is said to cause the destruction of 10 per cent. of the calves in some localities. The loss occasioned by Texas fever was estimated at $100,000 in 1881. The loss for the current year, up to the present time, is estimated at $120,000.

WYOMING TERRITORY.

Shorthorn and Hereford crosses on native Texan cows are the breeds mostly in use for the production of beef in this Territory. Shorthorns and Jerseys are the acceptable breeds for dairy purposes. Correspondents state the annual increase of cattle in the Territory at from 25 to 70 per cent. The animals are matured and shipped to market at three and four years of age. Chicago is the principal market, to which point they are shipped by rail. The cost of transportation from Cheyenne to the above-named market is $7.50 per head. The cost of feeding and maturing an animal is from $6 to $10 per head. The condition of cattle in this Territory is very good during the greater part of the yearvery good all the year round if they are fed hay during the heavy storms of winter. No artificial shelters are afforded, and the loss occasioned for lack of proper protection during inclement weather is at least 5 per cent. There should be better railroad facilities for the transportation of cattle, and lower rates. Black-leg is the only disease mentioned, and the loss from this disease alone is said to average 2 per cent. The number of cattle driven into the Territory from Texas is given at 265,000 head. No disease seems to have resulted.

SORGHUM CANE AS FORAGE.

While a large number of reports from various sources in the State of Kansas are strongly in favor of sorghum cane as forage, there is a variety of opinions as to the best method of growing, harvesting, and feeding it. Some are in favor of planting, cultivating, cutting, and shocking, as they would corn, while others are in favor of seeding thickly in order that the stalk may grow fine; cutting with a self-raking machine and allowing it to remain on the ground until well cured; then stacking in ricks and feeding as they would hay. Although some express

a preference for cane cut before the seed is formed, the majority, in order that there may be more nourishment in both the stalk and head, prefer letting it stand until the seed is in the dough.

While it is generally admitted that cane is valuable as forage, it is also agreed that, as a rule, it is not suitable as a constant, continuous feed in cold weather, but should be fed alternately with prairie and millet hay; and with a view to improving the feed and assisting in preserving the cane when stacked, cane and millet are sown together, aud the millet allowed to ripen well before harvesting. This method insures good feed. One serious objection to cane when not properly cured is its liability to freeze and sour, and thus while materially lessening its value as forage, causing stock to purge, and making their teeth sensitive and their mouths sore. Where cattle are well sheltered in winter and generously fed on other forage, a field of standing cane, to graze on when the weather will permit, is by some considered desirable, and so far as an individual opinion may go, I wish to add that this is the only manner in which standing cane should be used in the winter season. The States of Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, and the Territory of Wyoming, pay little or no attention to sorghum cane as forage, while Western Kansas raises thousands of acres for that purpose. The notable lack of hay or meadow land in Southwestern Kansas, and the immense influx of population-thus annually converting ranges of many miles in extent into agricultural districts-has caused stockmen to resort to the raising of forage crops to sustain their herds in winter, instead of relying upon buffalo grass and free range as they formerly did.

Many thousands of cattle have already been driven to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and placed upon new ranges, while many others have been sold to form small herds here and there over the prairies, because of the change above referred to, and the days of long-horned cattle, free ranging, extensive round-ups, &c., are destined soon to be "among the things that were," in the State of Kansas.

SOUTHERN CATTLE FEVER.

I am glad to be able to state there has not been so far as I have been able to learn, an outbreak of Texas fever or any other contagious or infectious disease within the Territory assigned me, and that there is at present no immediate prospect of such a calamity befalling us. Thousands upon thousands of Texas and other cattle have been moved from one point to another without causing or spreading any disease, a thing never before known, and since this movement has only been permitted under the supervision of laws, State and national, after strict sanitary and veterinary inspection, the public in general, and stockmen in particular, see and feel the benefits arising from the enactment of such laws and the enforcement of all necessary veterinary and sanitary regu. lations.

In reply to that portion of my instructions requiring an investigation into the cause, extent, and contagious character of "Texas fever," socalled, I regret to state that I have not been able to obtain any definite knowledge in reference thereto, not already in the possession of the Department.

Respectfully submitted.

LAWRENCE WILSON, Inspector Bureau of Animal Industry.

LARNED, KANS., September, 1885.

12508 A I—-28

INVESTIGATION OF SWINE PLAGUE IN NEBRASKA.

During the year 1884 swine-plage prevailed to a wide extent in Nebraska, and with such disastrous results as to attract the serious attention of all those interested in the breeding and rearing of hogs for the market. The industry is one of great importance to the farmers of this State, as it is through the production of these animals that a great part of their immense corn crops is marketed. The production of corn in this young State in the year 1884 was given at 122,100,000 bushels, valued at $21,978,000. The number of hogs produced in the State the same year was estimated by the Statistician of this Department at 1,786,383, valued at $13,022,732.

In the spring of 1884 the Department was urgently requested by Hon. James Laird, Representative in Congress of the second district of Nebraska, and others, to send a competent veterinarian into the State for the purpose of making a thorough investigation as to the extent and cause of this destructive disease, with a view to the discovery of a preventive or remedy for it. At that time it was impossible to comply with these urgent requests, as all the inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Industry were employed in important investigations that could not be interrupted or suspended. The best that could be done at the time was to institute a preliminary examination by correspondence, as it was thought that a competent veterinarian could be spared from other work later in the season, and at a time when the disease prevails to a greater extent than in the spring. The following circular letter was therefore prepared and forwarded to the county officers in every county in the State, and also to the statistical correspondents of the Department in each county:

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY, Washington, D. C., April 20, 1885. SIR: During the year 1884 diseases of swine prevailed to a wide extent in the State of Nebraska, and the losses were so great as to attract the serious attention of all those interested in this industry. This Department has been appealed to by many prominent citizens of this State to institute an investigation looking to a discovery of the cause of the maladies that have proved so destructive to these animals, and recommend such sanitary and preventive measures as the exigencies of the case may require. It was the intention of the Department to send a competent veterinarian to conduct the investigations within the borders of the State, but this has been prevented for the present by the investigation of destructive contagious diseases prevailing elsewhere, requiring the constant attention of the full professional force of the Bureau of Animal Industry. In view of this fact, the Department has determined to institute a preliminary examination by addressing this circular letter to its regular correspondents in Nebraska, and to many other prominent and intelligent stock-raisers of the State, whose names have been furnished us. If those receiving this circular will promptly and as accurately as possible answer the questions on the opposite page, they will confer a favor on the Department and assist in collecting information which may prove of great importance to the swine industry of their State.

Very respectfully,

NORMAN J. COLMAN,

Commissioner.

At the time this circular letter was forwarded there were seventythree counties in the State. While from a majority of the counties there were from one to four or five replies received, there were a few counties from which no returns were made. Forty-eight of these counties rendered returns as to the number of animals raised, the number affected with disease, the number of those attacked that died, the market value of such losses per head and the total value of the animals lost, of sufficient accuracy to form the following table:

Statement showing the number of hogs raised in forty-eight counties in Nebraska, in 1884, the number affected with infectious and contagious diseases, and the number of those attacked that die; the market value per head, and the total annual losses by such diseases.

BREEDING AND MANNER OF REARING HOGS IN NEBRASKA, CAUSE OF

DISEASE, ETC.

The following extracts from letters of correspondents of the Department not only give the history of the first appearance of the disease in the State, and its many and varied characteristics and symptoms, but