But the cattle, instead of waxing fat and prospering, began to grow thin. They developed a fever. They put their heads down and began to lick their hoofs. The local veterinary authorities had their attention directed to the case. The government came in, and the foot-and-mouth disease was officially declared extant in the United States. The foot-and-mouth disease, which has caused a quarantine on live stock in so many States, is violently contagious among animals. It is characterized by sensitive sores on the tongue, palate, and hoofs of the animals. The sores become red and raw within a very short time, and cause the disease to spread rapidly to other cattle. Government experts have declared that the only way to stamp out the disease is to destroy all animals affected. In the world-famous Union stockyards of Chicago infected cattle were killed in great droves, regardless of value, and were buried in quicklime to prevent any possible spread of the disease. Similar methods have been followed by cattle raisers of States where the quarantine is in force. The work of cleaning up and disinfecting the Chicago stockyards progressed rapidly. The only sign of excitement coincident with the shutting down of the yards was a shotgun onslaught on the hundreds of thousands of pigeons ordered killed by the State and government authorities. They were doomed as disease-germ carriers. The work of driving the rats from the yards was started. Poison fumes were sprayed into the holes and crevices in the brick pavements in those pens in which the work of cleaning and disinfecting had been completed. In all the vast acreage of cattle pens, ordinarily marked by tossing horns and eddies of sheep and swine, there was little life save where men handling the disinfecting machine waged battle against the germ of the costly malady. The twenty-five miles of streets and alleys within the inclosures were wintry in appearance, snow white with the lime spread over them. The resumption of slaughtering at the Chicago yards will not mean the restoration of business to its normal volume because the business in stockers and feeders will be affected. Two of the greatest cattle-producing States, Illinois and Iowa, are under the government ban because of the presence of the foot-and-mouth contagion. When Delaware was put under quarantine it was the thirteenth State in the list. By special order of the United States department of agriculture, Canada was included in the quarantine area. No evidence of foot-and-mouth disease had been discovered in the Dominion, but it was learned that infected cars had been sent over the border and the order was issued to prevent their return.