tremes of north and south and from the coast to the eastern boundary. Thousands of cattle die every year from this cause, and it is becoming a very serious question among small breeders. There seems to be several types of anthrax fever on the coast, and its general prevalence has caused the markets to be flooded with all sorts of nostrums, claimed to be preventives and remedies. Considering the natural conditions it is not strange that anthrax should be prevalent. Ordinary years the whole face of the country is one solid mat of the richest kind of food, and animals fatten without an effort. Wild oats, pea-vine, bunch grass, clover, and alfalfa cover hillside and valley, and the general profusion creates that indolence that always and everywhere causes stagnation of blood and great tendency to anthrax. The universal testimony of stockmen is to the effect that coast cattle, on being removed to the interior valleys, very frequently die, especially if the movement takes place during the summer months. The evidence is not sufficiently clear to warrant the expression of an opinion as to whether the disease in these cases is anthrax or some other fever. The losses are quite serious and enough to justify the fullest and most scientific investigation. The feed is generally better on the coast, and hence a great tendency to this disease. The following statement, made by a gentleman living on the coast, in San Luis Obispo County, is one of many such given me by reliable parties: He says that last year his farm lost $2,000 worth of cattle on one small dairy farm. About August they bought 20 cows from a neighbor, 7 miles distant, and moved them to their own place. The cows had been grazing on top of the coast mountains, at this point less than 3,000 feet high, with plenty of grass and good water. The premises to which they were moved were a few hundred feet lower and the grass was a little more abundant, with excellent water. The range consisted of bunch grass, clover, and alfalfa, recognized as the best to be found anywhere. No disease had ever shown itself on either of these farms, yet within a few weeks after the arrival of the 20 cows 16 of them died and a large percentage of the home cattle sickened and died also. The local veterinarians were employed and tried all remedies that could be heard of, but none of the cattle that were attacked were saved by virtue of medicine. Cows in calf sometimes threw off the fetus, and when this happened they always recovered. This discharged fetus was putrid and so offensive as to be unapproachable. No steer recovered, and no cow, except those losing the calf as above. A neighbor on an adjoining farm lost 25 cows out of 90, and half of the balance lost their calves. A postmortem revealed conditions almost identical with those given in former statements-melt greatly enlarged and rotten, liver diseased, and contents of stomach dry and hard. In all cases there was a high fever. More or less trouble of this nature occurs every year, sometimes but little and sometimes quite serious. Remembering that an area of country over which this trouble extends is very large, and that the cattle are well graded up, it can readily be seen that the annual loss amounts to a very large sum, and that the subject is one worthy of careful investigation. PROTECTIVE MEASURES REQUIRED. The vast cattle interests of the State of California are virtually without protection of any kind. The sanitary laws are so meager as to be nil. The $25,000,000 invested in cattle is liable to be wiped out by the introduction of contagious diseases, and no man can raise his hand against the infectious animal that brings the plague. The coast line of our possessions on the Pacific is nearly 6,000 miles long, and there are many ports of entry to and from which foreign vessels may come and go. It is true that under the United States Treasury regulations San Francisco is the only Pacific port at which the importation of cattle is permitted. But there are dozens of other ports at which foreign vessels arrive and discharge and take on freight. It is not an uncommon thing for captains of vessels to carry a cow on shipboard when they have their families with them, and it is not a very wide stretch of the imagination to suppose that a single cow might be landed at some of the obscure ports from a sailing vessel, and that disease might follow. But this is not the grave danger. The maps and charts on file in the office of the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washington show that almost the entire western shore of the Pacific Ocean is infested with rinderpest, pleuropneumonia, or some other contagious bovine disease. These diseased animals reach the coast, and in various ways the infection is liable to be carried on shipboard, though the cattle remain ashore. Vessels from any or all of these ports are liable to land on our Pacific coast and thus bring the infection to us. Nor is this all. British Columbia lies just over the way to the north, and her port of Victoria is liable at any time to receive an importation of diseased cattle. Many cattle from England, the hot-bed of infectious diseases, have in the past been landed there, and as the stock interests of that country grow more are likely to be required. There is simply an imaginary line between that country and Washington Territory, over which cattle pass and repass at will. With disease once carried east of the Gulf of Georgia on to the main-land, there would be nothing available but a shot-gun quarantine to keep them out of the United States. There is no law or treaty by which reciprocal quarantine could be maintained. South of California is a long line of coast in Mexico and Central America, with many ports and a very considerable traffic. On the other side are the ports around the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea. While Mexico and Central America are not importing many cattle, there is something done in this way every year, and with almost every country in Europe infected, it is a fair presumption that diseased cattle will sooner or later find entrance at some of those ports. There are hundreds of miles of boundary line on the north of Mexico entirely unguarded, and, as on the north, where cattle are continually changing from one side of the line to the other. Here, then, is a source of constant menace to the cattle interests of the Pacific, with no possible way of avoiding general infection should an outbreak occur in Mexico. There are no sanitery laws in force in that country by which the local authorities. would be enabled to grapple with the disease and prevent its spread to the border and over the line. On the east there are seven States where pleuro-pneumonia now exists in an active form, and generally without adequate means of suppression. Railroads from all of the infected States reach out and connect with three main lines of transcontinental roads that terminate in California. The quarantine regulations in most of the States and Territories to the east are very imperfect, and with many diseased cattle already in the channels of commerce, it is uncertain when some of them will reach the Pacific slope and spread contagion broadcast over that fair land. With no State quarantine laws under which a board of live stock commissioners or a State veterinarian could isolate an infected herd, should one be found in the State; with no law authorizing the slaughter of diseased animals or preventing their introduction, and with all sides of the State unguarded, certainly, under these conditions, and the further fact staring them in the face that the General Government can give them but little aid in an emergency, it behooves the legislature, at its next session, to formulate and pass so strong a sanitary and quarantine law as will enable State officials to protect this great industry. Not content with this, they should instruct, by resolution, their representatives in both houses of Congress to vote for and urge the passage of such a bill as will enable those in authority to wipe out all animal diseases in the United States and forever prevent their introduction in the future. The best brains of the State should be interested in this work, for the stock industry is a leading one, and its destruction would be a calamity to rich and poor. Desiring to get official information as to the sources whence importation came, I addressed a letter of inquiry to the collector of customs, and from him received the following reply: A. S. MERCER, Esq., CUSTOM-HOUSE, COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, Inspector of Bureau of Animal Industry. SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 1st instant, requesting information on certain points, and in reply to first query, from what source do you receive importations of dry hides? I have to say, from Mexico and British Columbia. In regard to second query, you are informed that no rags are imported into this district. Third, there have been a few importations of horses for breeding purposes, and five or six shipments of neat cattle in the last three years, chiefly from Australia. There is no Government quarantine ground at this port; when importations of neat cattle have arrived some proper place for the time being has been accepted and the cattle quarantined there for the time provided by law. I am, very respectfully, E. B. JEROME, Special Deputy Collector. The questions in the letter of inquiry covered dry hides and rags, because these are prolific sources of infection. Fortunately, none of these articles are received from the west coast of the Pacific, where the cattle plagues are so prevalent, and the laws should be so made as to forbid their importation in the future. DISEASE IN HONG-KONG. During the winter of 1885-'86 all of the cattle in Hong-Kong, China, died of some contagion, and the steamers have been carrying cows on their outward passages to restock the dairies. The demand is light, as the foreign merchants are about all who use milk in that city. About 150 milch cows have so far been exported. I mention this more especially in order to call your attention to the fact that a contagious bovine disease existed there, with the hope that through some proper Government channel of communication you may ascertain the nature of the disease. The most diligent inquiries of steamship company officials, merchants, etc., in San Francisco, failed to give any light on this subject. The continuous intercourse between San Francisco and HongKong by steamer, and the interchange of commodities, renders it important to know the nature of the disease that in a few months destroyed every cow brute on the island. Precautionary measures may be necessary to prevent the introduction of the germ of infection into this country. GENERAL REFLECTIONS. No part of the United States possessed more or greater advantages for cattle raising than did California when it was an open range country. Now, since it has become a farming country to a very large extent, it still has advantages in this direction surpassed by no State or Territory in the Union. The soil is wonderfully productive, and the hay crop produced even on the mountain sides is abundant almost beyond belief. The wonderful climate enables the farmer to cut and thoroughly cure as hay any of the grain crops, so that what in other regions is an inferior straw is there the best of hay. The growth is luxuriant everywhere, giving sufficient roughness to carry great numbers of cattle through the year with little or no grain, save while fattening for beef. Cattle can be matured there cheaper than in any other State where agriculture is the rule. Beef production in winter is not so cheap as in the arid regions east of the mountains, but fully on par with the Atlantic seaboard or the Mississippi Valley. A cold, dry atmosphere is most conducive to the laying on of fatness. The existence of splenic fever on the Pacific coast makes it plain that this disease develops south of a certain parallel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, if we accept the belief of Mr. Miller that it was not brought in. There are curves and breaks in the line which are affected by local causes, such as mountain ridges and trade winds. It is certain that portions of Arizona and New Mexico, though south of the general fever line, are entirely free from this malady, but the reason is undoubtedly the altitude. Whether splenic fever is a development of the coast, or whether it was imported, is a matter for serious inquiry. It was unknown, according to all information so far obtained, until about 1868. Since that time it has been an ever present trouble. Had the germ been imported at that time, it is doubtful whether it would have been destroyed for the reason that in many parts of the cattle country there is never any frost. In all of the regions east of the Rocky Mountains, where cattle die of the infection, taken from southern herds, there are winter frosts, and these destroy the germ. How long the germ would remain alive or active in the absence of frost is probably an unsolved question. At any rate, it is a new subject to me and one only understood (if understood at all) by thoroughly scientific men. Many of the valleys of southern California are low and inclined to be marshy. The thermometer marks 112° to 115° F. in the shade for months during summer, and the conditions would seem favorable to the development of the disease germ. This fact, taken in connection with the statements of practical well-informed cattle men on the coast, that no southern cattle had been brought in for years before the disease appeared, and then on foot and across the mountains under conditions that would have purged them, strengthens the belief in the development theory. Respectfully submitted. CHEYENNE, Wyo., December 7, 1886. A. S. MERCER, THE LIVE-STOCK INTERESTS OF MARYLAND. Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN, Commissioner of Agriculture. SIR: In obedience to instructions received from you, dated October 1, 1886, to visit the counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a view of ascertaining the condition of live stock, and to determine if any traces of contagious diseases exist among cattle, horses, or swine in these counties, I have the honor to submit the following report: SOMERSET COUNTY. I have visited every district of Somerset County, calling upon and questioning many prominent men in each district, visiting and inspecting many herds of cattle; also, visiting the salt marshes, where many hundreds of cattle are pastured, and I am pleased to say that no traces of pleuro-pneumonia, tuberculosis, or any other contagious disease is to be found in the county. The class of cattle kept in the county is of a poor grade, and generally not well fed or taken care of, but for all that they are healthy. The horses are of better stock, better cared for, and healthy. In regard to the losses by swine plague, it is a very difficult matter to get at the exact facts. The losses in the past ten years have been very great. Farmers are generally keeping as few hogs as possible, while many keep none, because of this disease. Thus the losses this year are less than in former years, though I believe the percentage of loss is as great now as ever, many losing from 50 to 75 per cent. of their herds, and some have lost all. For the past few weeks the disease has been raging fearfully, but is now dying out. In Princess Anne district Mr. E. D. Read, who has a farm of his own and also has charge of Hon. Isaac D. Jones' farm, says his losses in 1885 were $1,000 from hog cholera-75 head. Mr. J. W. Crisfield lost 50 per cent. of his herd, valued at $90. Mr. E. Brinkley lost many last year and this year also. In talking with a large number of persons they estimate the annual losses in this district alone at from $2,000 to $2,500, and I am quite sure this estimate is not too high. In Mount Vernon district, the estimate made in the same way as above, the losses are placed at from $500 to $1,000 per year. In Dames Quarter district the annual losses are from $500 to $1,000. In Brinkley's district Dr. F. A. Adams, physician and farmer, gave much information. In 1885 he lost 19 hogs out of 22, valued at $75. In 1884 he lost 9 out of 25 head, valued much higher, because they were fat and ready to kill-$150. His neighbor, John Long, this year lost four-fifths of his herd-12 head-valued at $100. Mr. Wilkins, another neighbor, in 1884, lost $100, in 1886, $50. A. P. Ellis, in 1884, lost $150, in 1886, $75. C. C. Wetherel, in 1884, lost $75, in 1886, $25. J. T. Walters lost, in 1885, $150. His average losses for the past ten years have been over $25. Many others have |