among his stock is the stallion Chandos, by Strathmore, sire of Santa Claus, dam by Almont.

Mr. A. V. Sargeant, of Raritan, N. J., will breed about twelve head this year. He is the owner of the stallion Kernwood, by Wedgewood, by Belmont, he by Abdallah 15, he by Hambletonian.

Mr. A. B. Darling, of Darlington, Bergen County, breeds about twenty head a year. He is the owner of Starlight by Kentucky Prince, and of Wellington by Kentucky Prince.

Messrs. Disston & Kilgour have a stud farm at Woodstown, Salem County, and breed about twenty-five head a year. They own Benton by General Benton, and Mambrino Pilot by Clark Chief.

Mr. W. J. Keys, of South Branch, breeds several colts every year and is the owner of Luke Fleet by Smuggler, and Fiddler Ford by Volunteer Clav.

Mr. W. N. Burgess, of East Lynne Farm, in Hunterdon County, breeds twelve colts a year and owns the stallion Egypt by Rysdyk, and Four Aces by Administrator.

Mr. E. E. Bergen, of Somerset County, breeds six colts a year and is the owner of Rintoul by Mambrino Dudley.

Mr. S. C. Mount, of Manalapan, owns the stallion Magenta by Electioneer, and uses him for breeding purposes.

Mr. E. G. Doolittle, of Montclair, Essex County, has just added his name to the list of breeders of trotting stock in this State.

MARKET VALUE OF HORSES.

In considering this subject carriage horses first attract our attention. Of this kind of horses we find that New Jersey uses the New York or Kentucky bred horses as distinguished from what is known as the western bred horse.

The free shoulder action of the New York and Kentucky horse, working from the knee upwards, makes this animal more prized than its western brother. In addition to this the New York horse has the advantage of being accustomed to the climate of New Jersey. The New York horse as a rule is not as fine as the Kentucky animal, but he is hardier and will last longer.

A team of New York or Kentucky horses in New Jersey is worth from $1,500 to $2,500. The Western horses, whose action seems principally from the knee down, bring from $600 to $1,000.

The Percheron or Norman draft horses are used exclusively in this State for heavy trucking, and bring from $500 to $700 a team, according to weight.

The farmers of New Jersey depend almost altogether on the West for a supply of horses to be used on the farm, few of our farmers paying any attention to breeding. Those horses sell from $350 to $450 per team.

The West also supplies the horses used by the various horse-car lines in this State, and these animals sell on an average of $135 each. Driving horses for family use come from all parts of the country, a number being received every year from the South and the West, in addition to those which are bred here or come from New York or Kentucky. They bring from $250 to $400 each according to speed. The general utility horses, used for delivery wagons and similar purposes, come nearly all from the West and are worth about $175 each.

Respectfully submitted.

PATERSON, N. J., January 1, 1890.

H. ROMAINE.

OUTBREAK OF DISEASE AMONG CATTLE IN MISSOURI.

Hon. J. M. RUSK,

Secretary of Agriculture:

SIR: In compliance with your telegram of the 10th instant, I started on Thursday morning, the 11th instant, for Missouri, to investigate an outbreak of disease existing among cattle of that State.

I was directed to report first to Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of Bureau of Animal Industry, at Washington, D. C.

On my arrival there I was handed the following circular letter of Dr. Paul Paquin, State veterinarian of Missouri:

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.

At the outset I beg stock owners not to be alarmed at this heading, and the newspapers not to raise a scare by incomplete explanations of this letter, or inaccurate descriptions of the disease I am about to explain, or partial explanation of my opinion.

Heretofore much damage has been done our stockmen, farmers, and our market centers just because of rash, unjustifiable, incorrect publications, and by ridiculous excitement, aided perhaps by unscrupulous speculators.

Some years ago a panic was created in the live-stock centers because of an outbreak of ergotism in Kansas, which had been termed foot-and-mouth disease. The error was very unfortunate, but had there been no error and had it been the true foot-and-mouth disease of Europe, why such excitement? It is the mildest epidemic affection of stock known, and the death rate scarcely rises to 10 per cent in the most virulent outbreaks, and not one-half per cent in the ordinary. The only serious damage that it does cause is in reducing the flesh and stopping the milk. Here it does hurt to the amount of several dollars per head. It is to prevent such possibilities and limit the trouble that I write and explain publicly a now prevalent malady attacking the mouth and feet of cattle in several counties of our State, and creating consternation among farmers and stockmen.

My object is to explain what to do, and I emphatically declare that there is absolutely no need of alarm in the slightest degree. Now if some wise man or knowing character does not feel called upon to scare the people, all will be benefited who are suffering and none will suffer who are free.

It is our policy to destroy all contagion and infection quietly and without publication. But in this instance we are taxed beyond our capacity. The demands for advice are too frequent, and the trouble too much scattered, and erroneous notices have already been published. We can benefit all and the whole State only by general public work.

I respectfully request every paper of the State to copy this in full-preface and all-so that every community may be informed of its duties and how to prevent losses.

387

IT IS A MOUTH-AND-FOOT DISEASE.

The disease I refer to now prevails among cattle in several counties. The symptoms are as follows: The cattle appear gaunt and gaunter day after day for want of food. If examined, the nose may be found hot, dry, and sometimes wine-color in patches. Blisters appear on the inside and on the margin of the lips, which become more or less raw and bleed easily. The pad (upper-jaw gum corresponding to the front teeth of lower jaw) also presents blisters, which soon break, form a thick, yellowish, cracked, soft crust. Sometimes the tongue is blotched or blistered, but rarely. There is much drooling of stringy, watery matter from the mouth, and the odor is anything but agreeable-often very fetid indeed. Those yellowish crusts slough out after a few days and leave raw surfaces or sores. There is occasionally a peculiar smacking of the lips.

In a few cases complications arise by which gangrene-rotting in fact-of the gums extend to the jawbones or teeth, and in a few instances the teeth become loose and even drop off.

Most of cases become lame and stiff from the same lesions breaking in the feetthe cleft particularly. Occasionally, also, blisters and consequent results--scabs, crusts, and even raw sores-occur on the udder. In three or four these appeared on the neck, the belly, the back, and about the root of the tail. Uncommonly there is diarrhea. The malady runs its regular course in an average of about eight days. The shortest course I have noticed was five and the longest eleven. There are irreg ular or complicated cases which last much longer. Fever, more or less intense, keeps up most of the time. The type is very mild, death rate being, so far as I can learn, less than one in two hundred.

PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE TREATMENTS.

(1) Separate all the sick and suspicious from the healthy stock, leaving the former where the disease began and putting the healthy in a new pasture or lot.

(2) Wash the mouth twice a day with a solution of borax or alum, or both combined, i.e., a wash composed of, say, a tablespoonful or more of pulverized borax and alum to a pint of water.

(3) Watch very closely the healthy stock and separate every new case as gauntness appears or any suspicious symptom may present itself, such as lameness, stiffness, dullness, dry nose, difficulty in taking food, etc.

(4) Persons attending to such diseased stock should not visit pastures or places occupied by healthy stock, whether on their own property or at their neighbors. All who have healthy stock should abstain from visiting diseased stock.

(5) Buckets and other articles used for diseased stock should not be used for anything else unless washed and scalded.

(6) Stock from infected herds should not be shipped to market or moved from the infected grounds, and none should be allowed on highways.

(7) It is prudent to keep sheep and perhaps swine away from the infected herds. (8) Persons with sore or chapped hands should handie disease carefully and wash clean after dressing cases.

It will pay to follow strictly all these measures of precaution. Some of them may appear unnecessary, but they are all based on rational hygienic principles that should not be transgressed. In bad or complicated cases, in which the feet are much affected, a daily wash with a copperas solution will be a great assistance.

Feed: The lips usually become so sore that the cattle can not pick any food. This is what causes such extreme gauntness and failing in flesh as characterizes the malady. When death occurs it is rarely due to internal lesions, but seems generally caused chiefly by starvation during the fever. To avoid such results feed the stock gruel, and push ears of corn into the mouth directly under the grinders, when the patient will chew and eat them.

Now is this the European foot-and-mouth disease? I confess I am not yet positive. It corresponds exactly with authoritative descriptions of it. But this much is certain, it is an epidemic affection of mouth and feet in cattle, and it is new to I know it is neither simple aphtha, nor simple eczema, nor ergotism. I am familiar with all of these.

me.

We are now engaged in tests with a view to solve the question of infection and contagion. But we deem it necessary to instruct the people at once and not wait for the result of these experiments.

The number of letters received concerning this disease precludes the possibility of official visits to all, so it is urged that stock owners follow the directions given here and quarantine their own diseased stock. They will find it profitable to themselves and the country.

Any citizen having this affection among his herd will kindly report to me at once, giving township, county, nature of disease, number of cases, number of deaths, and stating if any other animal than cattle took the disease.

Again, I ask all papers interested in the welfare of their community to please copy in full.

Your humble servant,

STATE VETERINARIAN'S OFFICE,

Columbia, Mo., September 4, 1890.

PAUL PAQUIN, Missouri State Veterinarian.

The great importance of verifying or negating the only plain inference of this somewhat remarkable document as early as possible caused the Secretary to order me to go to St. Louis, Mo, at once, where, by arrangement by telegraph, I was to meet Dr. Paquin.

I left Washington via Pennsylvania Railroad on the evening of September 11, and on my arrival at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., on the morning of September 13, I found Dr. Paquin in waiting for me.

At 9:30 a. m. of the same day we started for Old Monroe, Lincoln County, Mo., to visit cattle reported sick at that place. We had to drive from Old Monroe station to Chain of Rocks, about 6 miles distant.

Went first to the farm of E. R. Williamson, who has a herd of 16 head, consisting of cows, calves, and steers. Three weeks ago he bought 8 of these animals in the immediate neighborhood; the rest he has raised on the place.

The first case of sickness occurred six weeks ago (three weeks. before the purchase above referred to) in a milch cow. This cow appeared stiff, and the owner, thinking she was "foundered," paid but little attention to her. In about two weeks she calved naturally and at term. Her calf has been with her ever since and remains perfectly healthy. Upon examining the mouth of this cow I discovered the remains of abrasions of the dental pad and the first two bars of the inferior maxilla.

Another cow, one that has been on the premises for years, is now convalescing. The mouth presented appearances similar to those above described. There are no evidences that the feet or legs of either of these cows have been affected. No other animals on the place are or have been sick, though all have been running with these two cows. A calf, six months old, has been in the habit of eating food that was chewed and dropped by one of the sick cows and shows no signs whatever of any illness.

G. W. Pollard, living about one-quarter of a mile from Mr. Williamson, has a herd of 35 head, all of which he has raised. He is positive that they have not come in contact with any other cattle. Two of his cows that were taken sick about four weeks ago are now well. A red-roan cow, 7 years old, was noticed to be indisposed on the morning of September 12. The milk secretion is lessened and the cow appears somewhat dull and listless. She is disinclined to move, but is not lame. The temperature is 103° F., respiration 20, pulse 60. Upon examining the mouth I found reddening and congestion of papillæ of lips and tongue; there is slight excoriation of dental pad and first bar of under jaw. There is no discharge of saliva, no movement of jaws, and no smacking of the lips. The remainder of the herd, young and old, do not show the slightest departure from health. The sick cows have not been separated from the healthy ones.

There are about one hundred similar cases reported in this (Lincoln) county, but all are mostly recovered. In the majority of instances only one to four animals of a herd were affected; and I can not find a single instance where the feet have been affected. The only cases of death reported have been in young stock or grown animals, where no attempt was made to keep up their strength by feeding. The appetite is never lost, but there is an inability to eat unless the food is placed well back in the mouth; when this is done they chew the food and swallow it without difficulty.

We returned to St. Louis on the evening of September 13, and started on morning of September 14 for Columbia, Boone County, Mo., arriving there about 4 o'clock p. m. of the same day. Went at once to see some of the "town cows' that had been sick, but could not find any diseased at this time. Monday morning, September 15, I procured a team and with Dr. Paquin visited some affected herds in the neighborhood of Columbia.

F. W. Smith, who lives a short distance out of Columbia, has a very fine herd of 70 head of Herefords. The first case of this disease was noticed by him three weeks ago. Since then he has had seven others attacked. According to Mr. Smith, the animals are noticed to be dull, cows lose their milk secretion for about two days, the mouth is sore, and there is difficulty in cropping grass, etc. The duration of the disease, he says, is from four to six days. He has not noticed any lameness nor any sores on or about the feet or legs. Three of his cows are at present affected, two of which, however, are rapidly recovering. One of these had an eruption upon the udder, which is now covered with hard, dry, brownish scabs. The third one of these cows was noticed "beginning" September 14. Her temperature is 102.9° F., respiration 22, pulse 60, bowels natural, and she continues to eat and drink. The muzzle is dry, harsh, and of a brownish color; the dental pad and first two bars of inferior maxilla are denuded of mucous membrane, as is also the tip or apex of tongue. The papillæ of the mouth are reddened, enlarged, and congested, and bleed upon friction. There is a slight mucous discharge from the nose and an increased flow of saliva. Mr. Smith has not lost any cattle from this malady. He asserts that if they are in long grass they manage to get enough to eat and require no treatment. If the grass is short he feeds them by pushing solid food well back in the mouth or by giving gruel, etc. His cattle have all been together, and from careful observation he is certain that the disease is not contagious.

David Guitar, living about 1 mile from Mr. Smith, has one steer similarly affected.

Warren A. Smith, of Woodlandville, about 10 miles from Columbia, Mo., reports that he has had ten or twelve cases in all, the last being so mild as to be scarcely perceptible, and that in two or three days after the attack they were apparently well. A neighbor of his had about the same number affected, and they are now all well.

Mr. W. A. Smith, in describing the first cow attacked, says:

The first thing I noticed wrong was her failure to milk, refusing to eat, had blisters or sores on teats and udder, also at the root of the tail, extending to the udder and flank-all attended with a stiffness. On examining I found that the front gums. or the gums corresponding with the front lower teeth, were raw and very sore, making it impossible for her to feed herself. I then began giving green corn, placing it up in her jaws so far as not to interfere with the sores on the gums. She commenced to improve as soon as I fed her awhile in this way, and I now think