Hi Sherman
Re your question:
"Granadpa? (spelling) raised Hereford cattle in Wales, but Black Leg got
into the herd and they were dying off, so he sold out and with Grandma, the
seven kids, and their man and maid servants came to the United States"
"My question I have is: does anyone know what the Black Leg is?"
Black leg is a disease of cattle, sheep and goats. A Google search will give
you some pretty horrible results, but will also give you the details.
Black leg is extremely serious, and nowadays it can be controlled by
vaccination, but of course not when Granadpa was raising cattle.
I remember seeing lambs with both pulpy kidney and black leg when I was a
child, and it was not a pretty sight. They died quickly, but before it got
through the rest of the mob, we vaccinated the lambs and there were no more
cases. On one occasion I accidentally vaccinated my cousin through his thumb
when he presented a lamb to me for the needle. His own fault - who would
have given a child (as I was then) charge of a vaccination kit?
He is still alive in his 80's though and hasn't shown any signs of black leg
or pulpy kidney so far as I am aware...
John (NZ).