The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-11-12

pastures and driven to where they
could obtain only dry feed, and they all
began to improve at once.
Then some were returned to the al
falfa and they began to die off. This eX-
pertinent was tried on several ranches,
and the result clearly demonstrated
that the diseased alfalfa was the cause
Of the extreme mortality among the i'm
ported cattle The doctor discovered
that the alfalfa fungus rarely affected
cattle that had become gradually accuS-
toned to feeding on it, but that it quick
~ poisoned those that had not been fed
on alfalfa.
DR. Hardness had barely concluded
his statement to the Supervisors when
DR.. A. NJ McCollum, the veterinary
whom the board had delegated to go to
Elk Grove and ascertain if the cattle on
the Erhardt place were afflicted with
anthrax, entered the room, having just
returned from his mission He, too,
declared that the cattle from Oregon
had not died of anthrax, but he had an
explanation to make of the cause that
differed from DR.. Hardness theory.
DR.. McCollum stated that the immi
grant cattle had been placed on bottom
land where there was a very tender
growth OF new grass. and in their eager
ness to get it they had pulled it up by
the roots and swallowed large quanti-
ties of the earth and fine gravel that
chung to the roots.
This fact he had discovered, he said,
by making autopsieS on the carcaSSes
of some of the cattle that had died SO
mySteriouSly He found impacted III
their stOmachs great quantities Of this
indigestible stuff, as high as thirty or
forty pounds in some cases, and APP
parently it had been in the stomachs of
the cattle for several weeks. All the
other organs he found to be in a healthy
condition. He exhibited a quantity of
the earthly matter which he had taken
from one carcass.
DR.. Hardness still believed the cattle
had fed on the alfalfa fungus or some
equally poisoned food that had created
a morbid appetite that induced the cat
tie to eat the earth and gravel found in
them.
To satisfy himself on this point, as
well as to save the county and the own
ers of cattle from unnecessary loss or
expense, the doctor determined on Wis
iting the Erhardt ranch, and Super
visor Jenkins volunteered to escort him
there, which service the doctor accepted
and they departed at once
DR.. Hardness returned in the evening
and was seen by Record Union re-
porter on his arrival and asked the re-
suit of his investigation.
Those cattle are not afflicted with an
thrax nor any other disease" replied
the doctor, and it would be an unneces-
sary hardship on their owner to destroy
any of them. The cattle had been re-
moved from the bottom land to high
ground where the feed is dry, and some
placed in stubble-fields, and Mr.. Erhardt
infOrmes me that no more have died
and that they are all doing nicely.
rs CT IKrnn
were first turned out and where some
fifty had died, and found that. while
they did not feed on alfalfa, they did
encounter vegetation that is badly af-
fected with fungus, which I have no
doubt is quite as injurious as the
'dothidia' poison. 1 secured several
specimens of it and will examine and
determine its character on my return to
San Francisco"
Asked what he had found regarding
the quantities of earthly matter which
the cattle were said to have eaten, the
doctor said:
Mr.. Erhardt informed me that he
had opened the stOmachs of two or three
Of the dead cattle and found in each a
quantity of such matter. but not nearly
50 much as DR.. McCollum stated. He
said it was from one to three pounds.
In that case it hardly seems probable
that the gravel was the real cause of
death, though it may have contributed
to that result"
The doctor said the alfalfa fungus is
found only during the months of Octo-
Der and November. and that it disap-
pears after few good showers of rain.