EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 201 



with six and increasing to twelve ounces daily. The smut was fed with 

 ground grain and chopped hay. To one cow it was given wet, to the 

 other dry. The cow that received the wet ration gained in weight during 

 the trial, the other lost in weight, but both remained well. 



Dr. N. S. Mayo, in discussing the relation of corn smut to ''the corn 

 stalk disease of cattle," in Bulletin No. 58 of the Kansas Experiment 

 Station, records the experience of a farmer living near Manhattan who, 

 believing that corn smut w^as liable to produce the disease, took pains 

 to gather the smut from the field. "One night his cattle broke into the 

 enclosure where the smutty corn and smut had been thrown out and 

 ate all they wished; no injurious effects were noticed." 



In Bulletin No. 10, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, there is recorded the results of an experiment performed in 

 January, 1894, of feeding corn smut in large quantities to two heifers. 

 The results are reported as follows: 



"Beginning on the morning of January 17, 1894, and continuing until 

 noon of February 2 (sixteen and one-half days), the heifers were fed 

 morning and evening with from two to three quarts of a mixture of 

 equal parts by weight of cut hay and a mixture of corn meal, middlings 

 and wheat bran, and sixteen quarts of smut. The actual quantity of the 

 fungus consumed by one heifer was sixty-one pounds or a daily average 

 of nearly three and seven-tenths pounds, and by the others sixty-seven 

 and one-half pounds, or a daily average of four and one-fifth pounds. 

 The temperatures of the animals were taken every morning and even- 

 ing. The animals appeared to be perfectly well throughout the time 

 of feeding and continued so for several months, during which time they 

 were kept under close observation." 



The results of our experiment coincide with those of other experi- 

 ments whose records are available and may be taken as showing 

 that no danger is to be apprehended from the feeding of smutty stalks, 

 either to pregnant dairy cows or to those in full milk. It is unquestion- 

 ably true that the feeding of smutty stalks and corn perpetuates the dis- 

 ease from year to year through the medium of the manure. It is other- 

 wise good management to haul manure directly from the stable to the 

 fields, usually in sod, on which the corn is to be planted the following 

 year, although such a course, while economizing the human labor in the 

 care of the cows, brings about the best possible conditions for infecting 

 the corn crop. No statistics are at hand to show that the corn smut 

 is more prevalent in recent years than heretofore, although the prac- 

 tice of hauling out manure as fast as it is made has been common for 

 many years. 



To prevent the spread of the disease it may be expedient to remove 

 the growing smut boils before the spores mature, but the expense of 

 going through the corn field as often as would be necessary to accom- 

 plish this purpose would be so great as to render the method out of 

 the question for the ordinary farmer. After the dark brown masses of 

 spores have become ripe and dry, but little advantage can result from 

 cutting them off and leaving then in the corn field where they would be 

 blown about by the winds. 

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