ANNUAL REPORT.

COLUMBUS, O., December 14, 1891.

The HON. JAMES E. CAMPBELL, Governor of Ohio:

SIR: The Live Stock Commission of Ohio beg leave to submit the following report of their work for the year ending November 15th, 1891:

At its last session the Legislature of Ohio modified previous legislation so as to conform to that of the United States government.

The trade in Southern cattle at some points in Ohio is very large. Notably at Cleveland.

The law previous to 1891 forbade the unloading of cattle from the scheduled districts at any point in Ohio, except for feeding and watering in special pens, to be used exclusively for Texas cattle.

Nevertheless, parties were constantly violating the law in the interests of commerce; moreover, it was ruinous to the business of many. Under the law, as it now exists, cattle from the scheduled districts may be unloaded from the cars into pens connected with the slaughter-houses, whence they are not to be removed except to the shambles.

At Cleveland and Toledo the butchers engaged in this traffic have fully complied with the law, under advice and direction of this Commission-and we have had no cases of infection from those points.

From the stock yards at Cincinnati many cases of infection have occurred.

As far as the knowledge of the Commission extends, cattle from the scheduled districts have not been seen in the State, outside the markets of the large cities, except at Ashtabula and Newark.

There was a question about two car loads which were received in Columbus early in the season.

A point of greater interest is the neglect of parties receiving Texas cattle to disinfect the cars in accordance with our State laws and those of the United States.

The cattle which have died from Texas fever at Cincinnati, Middletown, Springfield and Wellington have been high grade native cattle, evidently infected in pens or cars which have been used in their transportation, without regard to disinfection.

The sources of these outbreaks have been traced to Cincinnati, Chattanooga and Buffalo.

The maintenance of an efficient quaran ne and disinfection of cars is subject of the greatest importance to the attle trade.

In summing up, Texans communi ted the disease at Newark; all other cases are believed to be traceable o foul pens or cars.

Comparatively few cases of scabs, glanders, and other infectious diseases have come under the purview of this Board during the year, all of which will be reported by Dr. Moore, who personally visited and inspected many of the cases.

Last year the Board installed a small laboratory and entered upon the systematic culture of the microbes which are believed to be the cause of hog cholera.

Inoculations have been made with these cultures. The details of these operations will be fully given in the report of Dr. Moore, together with the results.

The question of the successful preventive inoculation of hogs against hog cholera is still sub judice. We believe it to be practicable, although the results secured by our Commission have not been such as we had hoped. They have been carried on vigorously and are so far at least encouraging.

Some authorities believe the question is solved. Our studies have been independent of all others, and while our success is not equal to that obtained by others, every step of our way has been fully and honestly tested.

This work is the most important which has so far engaged the attention of this Commission, and it will be pursued during the coming year. The success or failure of our process can only be tested on hogs. The protective influence of an inoculation can only be ascertained by a prolonged exposure of the inoculated animals to the most active sources of the contagion-among dying herds and in infected fields.

Suspecting that inoculated animals infected one field so that unprotected animals placed therein the following year nearly all died from hog cholera, we can not wonder that hog breeders are averse to exposing their herds to these experiments.

Hogs can be and have been inoculated-are they or can they be protected so they will invariably resist the operation of an intense focus of infection?

This is the question which we are endeavoring to solve.

Very respectfully,

THOS. P. SHIELDS,
O. P. GOODMAN,

D. N. KINSMAN.

REPORT OF DR. MOORE.

COLUMBUS, O., December 14, 1891.

To the Board of Live Stock Commissioners of the State of Ohio:

GENTLEMEN: On Friday January, 10th, 1891, I went to Mt. Gilead to make inquiries in regard to a reported outbreak of hydrophobia. On December 16th, 1890, Mr. C. H. Wood, of Mt. Gilead, wrote to the Hon. T. C. Jones, late President of your Bard, notifying him of the trouble, and Judge Jones referred the matter to the Secretary. It seems that about the middle of September, 1890, a so-called mad dog made his appearance in the neighborhood of Mt. Gilead, and is said to have bitten several dogs and some farm stock. I found that three cows, eight hogs and one horse -about the latter there seemed reasons for doubt-had been bitten by this dog or by dogs, which he is said to have infected. Of the various owners of these animals I was only able to meet Mr. Geo. Eccles, who gave me the following statement with regard to his own stock. Two cows and one hog were bitten. The hog died in eighteen or nineteen days and one of the cows on the twentieth or twenty-first day. The other cow was being milked at the time of the infection and she was not dried off for about two months, during all of which time she showed no symptoms such as the other cow had had. But within three or four days after the cessation of milking, she presented the same symptoms as the other cow and promptly died. The pigs which were being fed on her milk, during the use of that milk, were in perfect health and so continued. Mr. Eccles gave, as his recollection, the statement with reference to the death of the other seven hogs, and also said that he doubted strongly whether the horse mentioned above died of rabies, although the owner claimed such to be the fact.

On February 12th I went to Blanchester to meet Mr. B. F. Jones, to see his sheep. I found about one hundred and twenty-five blooded sheep in a most pitiable condition with scab. Proper treatment was advised and the sheep quarantined for sixty days.

On March 10th I went to Haydenville to meet Mr. H. W. Stiers. A year ago last spring Mr. Stiers lost several horses in an unusual way and from an unrecognized cause. Death was supposed to have been caused by feeding ensilage of corn, which, in 1889, had been made from cor