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Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"


My pigs are several hundred yards from the public roads, and my
neighbor, Jackson, has planted a young orchard on his land to the north
of my hog lots, and permits no hogs in this planting. I have thus
secured practical isolation. I have rarely sent swine to fairs or stock
shows. In the few instances in which I have broken this rule I have sold
the stock shown, never returning it to Four Oaks.
Isolation, cleanliness, good food, good water, and a constant supply of
ashes, charcoal, and salt, have kept my herd (thus far) from those
dreadfully fatal diseases that destroy so many swine. If I can keep the
specific micro-organism that causes hog-cholera off my place, I need not
fear the disease. The same is true of swine plague. These diseases are
of bacterial origin, and are communicated by the transference of
bacteria from the infected to the non-infected. I propose to keep my
healthy herd as far removed as possible from all sources of infection. I
have carried these precautions so far that I am often scoffed at. I
require my swineherd, when returning from a fair or a stock show, to
take a full bath and to disinfect his clothing before stepping into the
pig-house.


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