The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-03-25

appeared stuntcd. Samples Of leaves
and stalks were collected and in 4
watcry extract from these samples
prussic acid was found. Slade esti-
mated that seven or eight pounds of
the fodder contained sufficient poison
to kin one animal. fdAg lS.f
Because of the close resemblance
between toxic poisoning from sorghum
and the symptoms of cornstalk dis
case, Price deemed 1t advisable to ex-
anime cornstalks for the substances
which produce prissic acid in plants
Samples Of stalks from fields In which
cattle had died we're obtained. In
these samples he discovered an engine
which had the property Of decompos-
ing glucoside tamygdalin) and there
by producing prussic acid. However,
no glucoside capable OF forming this
poison as result Of engine action
was found. The results were not re-
garded as conclusive, as only few
samples were examined, and the fail
ure to discover a suitable glucosido
did not prove It's absence In the corn
plant, or In other plants In the field.
In an outbreak that occurred few
years ago the possible influence of
certain conditions Of growth and de-
vclopment Of corn in causing the dis.
ease was noted. In neighborhood
where the disease was prevalent in It's
most fatal form 22 head of cattle were
pastured in q 15-acre stalk field for
three weeks. They were then turned
into an adjoining 40.acre field. Toward
the end Of the first week three head
OF stock cattle died. The herd was
then taken out of the stalk field and
no further loss occurred. The only
apparent difference in the two fields
was that the 40 acres Of corn were
badly injured by drought during the
growing season. and the Is acres,
which were planted late, yielded a full
crop.
The name cornstalk disease Is mean.
fngless, SO far as the specific cause Of
the disease is concerned. In the use
of this term We designate the condi
tion under which the sickness and
deaths occur. There arc, apparently,
grouped under this one head several
diseases which occur under definite
conditions and present rather uni
form line Of symptoms. The symp
toms closely resemble certain forms OF
toxic poisoning, but only one investl
gator reports the fading Of poison
GUS substance potassium nitrate).
Hence, 1t is very doubtful II this nitrate
is n frequent cause of loss among ami.
mails pasturing on c0rnstalks.
The possibility of the presence IN
cornstalks of such substances as pro
ducc prussic acid Is suggested because
OF the resemblance that the symptoms
and sometimes the conditions under
which the disease occurs, has to sor
ghum poisoning. A reasonable ex:
PLANTATION for the failure of investiga
tors to find toxic substance is that
all cornstalks. or portions of the corn
plant, do not contain the poison. In q
feeding test with spoiled car corn the
failure to produce the same disease as
occurs in tho field may be due to the
different conditions. Animals in the
field are able to select their feed
Judging from the, small percentage OF
The herd that is usually affected al
any one time, all of the stalks, leaves
and undeveloped and spoiled corn are
not injurious, for II the injurious sub
stance was present in all Of the food a
larger number OF the animals in the
herd would suffer and the cases would
not be distributed over a period of sew
cral days, or several weeks.