431

U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Bureau of Animal Industry.

Washington, D. C., March 27th 1886.

Prof. Charles E. Bessey,
University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, Nebraska,

Sir:

I am in receipt of your favor of the 19th instant offering
facilities to this Department for investigations of contagious
diseases of animals and particularly hog cholera, at your university.
This Department has been engaged for the past 8 years in the investigation
of swine-plague, and I am very much interested in bringing
these investigations to a successful termination. Very substantial
progress has been made during the last year and we are now
almost to a point where we desire to make some researches in the
West where this disease is so prevalent. I do not feel that it
would be good policy to appoint any perosn who has not been connected
with the investigations of the past and who consequently
would not have the advantage of what we have learned, to conduct
such work. But I shall be happy to allow one of our experienced men
to visit your place during the summer and stay a sufficient length
of time to solve those questions which have presented themselves
to us and which cannot be well worked out here.