The Columbus journal., 1879-01-29
Cattle by ing I'm the Corn.Fields
Need Of Water or Sue.
culent Food.

Iowa, that thousands of dollars
worth of cattle have died within a
radius of a few miles after they
were turned into the stalk-fie Ids.
Not one has recovered after seizure.
Some blame the smutty corn, others
the dry leaves and husks, and still
others the infreQuent watering. The
fatality may be very justly charged
on all these causes aforementioned.
The injurious tendency of smut is
sufficiently attested by the yearly
recurrence of losses when ii is large
~ fed without a due admixture of
other food that may act as a correc-
tive, and more particularly if the
supply of water is restricted. If
fed along with succulent or aqueous
food, as pumpkins, turnips, apples,
potatoes, beets, etc., it may be given
to an extraordinary extent without
apparent injury, and if there is even
an unrestricted and ever present
supply of good water cattle will
feed on cOrn-stalks alone, contain
ing great amount of smut, without
suffering evil effects. If the stock
are turned into the cornfields early
in the Autumn, aud before the su-
prevention of severe frosts, they
usually thrive on the fodder. 1t is
only later, when the streams and
pools are frozen over, SO that the
stock must seek another and more
distant supply, or wait over whole
days, it may be, until their custo-
dians find time to break the ice,
that this fatality makes its appear
ance.
No ruminating animal can bring
mp the cud unless it has a sufficien-
cy of liquid in its paunch. If there
fore cattle or sheep are deprived of
water, and fed on dry food they are
subjected to a process of semi-star-
vation, no matter how abundant the
supply. What is even worse, the
hard, dry food, accumulating in the
paunch and manifolds, becomes bak-
ed into hard, solid masses, compar-
atively impervious to water, and
which is broken down slowly if at |
all when fluids are again supplied. |
AS these dry masses accumulate the |
stomach becomes over distended,
torpid, and finally completely par
alyzed, and the animal slowly sinks
in condition of dulness and stupor
or perishes in few hours in a state |
of violent delirium. This result is,
of course, largely favored by the
dry leaves and husks, but above all |
by the smut, which has a special
action on the nerve centres, and
thereby hastens the paralysis of the
stomach.
Like all rapidly fatal disorders
this is best met by prerentiUe meas
ures, and these consist essentially i'm
full supply of water easily accessi-
BILE at all hours and every day, with
or without a supply of succulent
roots or fruits. In Professor GAM
gees experiments on smut, he found
that the cow which took the smut
wet made flesh rapidly, while that
which ate it dry lost condition aud
weight. So it is with the closely
allied ergot of grains; when eaten
largely in bread and without veget-
ables this causes dry gangrene in
man; when eaten continuously i'm
hay by cattle it induces dry gan
creme, abortion, etc., but when mix.
ed with potatoes or eaten alternate
ly with sufficiently succulent roots,
1t proves inoculous. Treatment is
unsatisfactory because of the rapid
course of the disease i'm many cases,
but it would consist in efforts to
open the bowels by saline purga-
tives, injections and nerve stimu-
lants, as follows:
For full-grown OK, IL pounds
EPSON salts, = pound of common
table salt, and 10 ounces ground
ginger may be given in four quarts
warm water, and an unrestricted
supply of water with the chill off
should be allowed. If it can be
availed of, 2 grains of strychnine
and few drops of vinegar, dissolv-
ed in a drachm of distilled water,
should be thrown under the skin by
means of hypodermic syringe. If
not = drachm of nux vomica NAV
be added to the physic. Copious
injections of warm water NAV be
thrown into the rectum at intervals
of an hour; cold or water a bag of
ice may be applied to the head should
stupor or delirium come on with
extra heat about the roots of the
ears and horns, and finally blister
of mustard and turpentine may be
applied to the region OF the last ribs
on the right side, i'm case the brain
symptoms are extreme.
Even if the bowels respond freely ;
to the purgative it will be needful ,
TO feed for a few days on a soft,
watery or succulent diet, TO give
free access to plenty of water, and
to give half a pound of EPSON salts
every other day for week. In this
way the accumulated and baked j