The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-12-15
Answered by J. 7. E. Dinwoodie.

Answered by J. T. E. Dinwoodie.
Cornstalk disease caused consider
able loss IN many sections of the
state last fall. Your community is not
alone IN this respcct-this disease APP
pears quite regularly every fall, how
ever, is appearance is not always in
the same community each year.
CIR present knowledge concerning
so-callcd corn stalk disease is very
limited As far as we know at this
time this "discasc' is not due to any
particular condition or circumstance.
From personal experience and obser-
vation as well as the reading of litera-
turc on this subject | am of the opin-
ion that deaths due to so-called corn
stalk disease may be caused by one or
more Of the following conditions and
diseases:
No. /, engagement; No. 2, prussic
acid poisoning; No. 3, hemorrhagic
septicemia No. 4, ptomaine poison
ing, and No. 5, incidental deaths.
Animals Overeat
Cattle in the fall Of the year usu-
ally run on rather short pasture and
this is especially true in corn growing
sections. 1t is surprising how bare
and closely eaten pastures may be-
come and yet support livestock. Nat
urally when cattle are turned into a
field of luXuriant growth, such as
cornstalk field, from a sparse pasture
it is onlv natural that these animals
will overeat AS a result Of overeat-
ING and overlooking the stomach with
cornstalks. which contain much crude
material, the animals may suffer a
variety Of digestive disturbances the
most common of which is engorge-
ment. Animals suffering from engorge-
ment will show cessation of rumina-
ton, bowel discharges will cease and
the animal will show every symptom
of abdominal pain. Death from en-
gorgement is not hurried or rapid
and consequently is not unexpected
by the owner.
Prevention Of this condition is self
cvidcnt-animals should not be al
lowed to ovcrfill. In order to prevent
overfilling and ovcreating the appe-
tite of animals should be partly salts
fled before being turned in. However,
engagement does not occur in herds
that have become accusomed to run
nino in the cornficld-this condition
is usually the happening Of the first
dav or two that the cattle are in the
fields. If there is any particular
virtue in the feeding of salt or III see
inc that animals have water immedi-
atclv accessible, it should be of
assistance in the prevention OF en-
gorgement in that both water and salt
mitigate against impaction. From
personal observation | am rather OF
the opinion that animals that are
properly salted and animals that have
water easily accessible are less liable
to die in the cornstalks than are ami
mails not so fortunately situated.
While | con not explain this happen
inc. this has been my observation.
Prussic Acid Poisoning
For the second condition, prussic
acid poisoning, it appears that i'll
some sections containing peculiar soil
conditions, the growth produced by
this type of soil will, after freezing,
contain a sufficiently high percent of
prussic acid to cause poisoning IN
stock. Death from prussic acid Is
always unexpected and violent.
Deaths only occur in animals that
have consumed the polson-bearinc
growth. There is no way to determine
whether death is due to prussic acid
poisoning or not in that this type OF
poisoning leaves no post-mortem evl-
dence nor is it possible to have the
cornstalks analyzed in that the amount
Of prussc ac,d present is infnltesimal.
A proper test has not yet been devised
for the detection Of the presence OF
mere trace of this highly fatal
poison. Naturally the only way to
prevent deaths, in fields where death
has once been definitely attributed to
prussic acd poisoning, is by prevent
inc the animals from eating sue
growth again by not turning them in,