Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1898 — HELP. FOR THE HOG. [ARTICLE]

HELP. FOR THE HOG.

Secretary Wilson Believes a Cholera Remedy Has Been Fonnd. « Secretary Wilson is well pleased with the results of the experiments that have . been going on under his direction in lowa ! and Nebraska during the last few months in the treatment of bog cholera by inocui lation, for he thinks the discoveries that have been developed are worth SIOO,OOO,- ■ 000 a year to the people of the United States. I The experiments were undertaken in Page County, lowa, last spring, where ! sevtral hundred hogs that wore afflicted | with a disease that has until now been considered fatal, were cured by the use i of serum, and several hundred more that ‘ were perfectly healthy when protected by j the serum were permitted to range freely among those that were diseased without showing any effects from the contagion. Eighty-five per cent of the sick were [ cured and the healthy protected. Similar experiments have been going on in Nebraska all summer, hut the detailed re- . turns have not been received. The serum is obtained in the same manner as the antitoxin that is used for diphtheria. A horse or a eo\V is inoculated with the germs day after day until no effect is apparent. Its veins are then tapped, a few drops of its blood injected under the J skin of healthy hogs has the same effect as a preventive of cholera that vaccina- : tion has in smallpox. There was scarcely a failure in several hundred cases, although the animals were exposed to the diseas! in every possible manner. The same treatment was equally successful in curing the disease when taken in,the early stages. «. ■ j Curiously enough, the cultivation of the serum does not injure the horse or the ‘cow, and the animal can be used over and over again every year until it becomes aged, provided it is given plenty of those forms of fodder that supply and strengthen the blood. A single horse or cow will produce 1,000 doses of Serum a year, and, if ordinary economy is practiced, this will reduce the cost of treatment to 10 or 15 cents per hog. Hundreds of thousands of horses throughout the United States that are now killed for their hides may be used to save the hogs, and their value will be increased by the demand thus created for them. The method of cultivating the serum can. be taught at all the agricultural experiment stations and on the large stock farms, and with a little experience farmers may be able to furnish iheir own supply. The county agricultural societies can take up the matter, and by co-operation their members can reduce the cost and extend the usefulness •if the treatment. Secretary Wilson estimates'-cthe annual loss from hog cholera in the United States from $90,060,000 to $100,000,000. In the State of lowa alone, where statistics of the mortality of the animals afflicted with this disease have been accurately kept, the annual loss is $15,000,000. He believes that nearly all this can be prevented. In 1892 there were 52,308,019 swine in the United States, valued at $295,426,492. That was high-water mark. Since tlieii their number and value have been materially decreased by the cholera, and the figures for 1897 were 40,600,276 hogs, valued at $166,272,770. These hogs are worth an average,, of $5.84 each. I&wa is the largest hog State- in the country, the census ot 1897 showing 3,737,070 animals, valued at $21,182,330. Missouri comes next, then Texas,' Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee,. Alabama, Mississippi and other of the Southern St jtes. There was a decrease of 5.7 per cent in the number and 10.9 in the value of hogs in the United States last year.