The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-17
The Corn SINK Disease.

The season is approaching when losses
of cattle from what, for want of a better
name, is called the corn stalk disease
are likely to become frequent, says the
Iowa Homestead. In many localities these
losses are quite heavy every year, and as
il gives no warning, the first the owner
knows of the attack being to find the cat
tie dead or dying, there is no chance for
treatment. Exemption from loss must be
found, if at all, along preventive lines. The
disease is so little understood, too, that
even were there time for treatment, the
most skilled veterinarians would be at a
loss what to prescribe. Not much has been
learned during the past year in regard to
the real cause of the disease. We know
that it occurs sometimes when the cattle
are turned into the stalk field, and that al
others it does not. The reasons for the
attack when they occur cannot as yet be
said to be known. A good many theories
have been propounded In regard to the all
ment, all of them having more or less
plausbility, but all open to objection. DIR.
Mayo, of the Kansas experiment station,
has thought that it was due to saltpeter
in the stalks, and it is undoubtedly true
that saftpeter in sufficient quantities will
kill cattle, but doses of the drug have been
given incidentally and in quite as large
quantities as any animal would be likely
other observers have inclined to the be-
lief that the corn stalk disease was identi-
cal with dry murrain, and while some of
the cases that have been called corn stalk
disease have probably been dry murrain,
yet there have been a great many others
that with equal certainty have not been
this long known cattle trouble. Inves tiga-
tors who depend largely on the microscope
at one time believed that the bacillus iden-
tilted by DR.. Burrill in $780, was the cause
of the trouble, but actual experiment has
shown that the disease is not produced
when stalks affected by the Burrill bacil-
lus have been fed. DR.. Billings germ the
DRY seems to have more probability Some
cattle have been killed or seriously affected
when given an opportunity to eat fodder
affected by the germ identified by him.
Still the real cause of the trouble is, as yet
enveloped in doubt. THAT 1t is not due to
corn smut is perfectly clear, because too
many cattle have been experimentally fed
large dairy doses of corn smut for a con-
siderable time without injury, to admit of
this explanation.
In the meantime in the present state of
our knowledge of the subject the only
thing that can be done is to pursue such
preventive measures as experience has
shown to be useful. The corn stalk disease
can be in large measure prevented by
feeding some hay, or other forage, with
small grain ration, and only turning the
cattle into the stalk field for short pc
Rod at a time. As in the case of bloat
with clover or alfalfa, never turn the cat
tie into the stalks when they are very hun
CRY, and do not compel them to rely and
feed largely upon the stalks, but use the
stalk field merely as something to help
out. In the sections where corn stalk dis
ease prevails most largely, a good many
range cattle will probably be fed. Care
should be exercised in turning them into
the stalk field to see that they have other
feed first sufficient to take the edge off
their hunger, and not to leave them on too
long, but to move them to yards or other
pasture, allowing them to pick from the
stalk fields for only short time during
the day, and to find a considerable propor-
ton of their sustenance in other feeds.