In January of 1978, the United States was declared free of hog cholera, a disease first reported in this country in 1883. Though not always thought of in terms of Sacramento Valley product, hogs were an important source of cash both as livestock and cured meat, and disease could kill a family's livelihood as well as its livestock. Between 1886 and 1913 there were at least four major outbreaks and in each instance over ten percent of the nation's hogs died. This undated advertising label for J. C. Crump and Co.'s Hog Cholera Cure and Preventative came from Ryde, a small community down the Sacramento River that was in private hands until the late 1890s. Sacramento merchants dealing in ham and bacon like Hall, Luhrs & Co. probably sold Crump's Cure in their stores. The USDA's Bureau of Animal Industry in 1903 found hog cholera came from an ultramicroscopic virus and that animals who survived the disease were immune for life.
