HOG CHOLERA.

During the time covered by this report, special efforts have been put forth by this Commission and its co-operative agencies in the control of hog cholera within the state. The enormous and ever increasing annual losses from this disease necessitated that some systematic measures of control be undertaken. For the purpose of working out an efficient and practical method of controlling cholera, a co-operative experiment, which was referred to in the Fifteenth Biennial Report of this Commission, was inaugurated in Branch county by this Commission, in co-operation with the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, Michigan Agricultural College, and Branch County Farm Bureau, in 1914, and continued during the succeeding two years. By this experiment, it was demonstrated that by properly educating the farmers regarding the nature of cholera, the ways by which it is spread, and the best methods of combatting it, together with the prompt administration of anti-hog-cholera serum to the well hogs in infected herds, and strict enforcement of quarantine and sanitary measures on infected premises, effective control of cholera could be accomplished and the losses reduced to a minimum. The following table shows the number of hogs lost during the year preceding the inauguration of this experiment, and results compiled at the end of each year's work during the life of the experiment:

By observing the above figures, it will be noted that during the entire time the experiment was in progress, cholera was kept well under con