36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



there is very little treatment which has proved very satisfac- 

 tory ; but of late years it has been customary to keep the 

 cattle in herds where this disease prevails in a low condi- 

 tion, and when the first symptoms occur, to drive the cattle 

 very hard for almost as long as they can stand up ; and in 

 the majority of cases this seems to be beneficial, and the 

 animals recover. 



Mr. . Is that disease considered infectious ? 



Dr. Salmon. It is a disease that can be produced by in- 

 oculation. It probably is acquired from the pastures in 

 some way. I do not think there is great danger of animals 

 takino^ it from each other. 



Mr. . That is what I supposed from seeing isolated. 



cases of it, not existing throughout the herd. 



Mr. Myrick. Would feeding bone meal have any bene- 

 ficial efiect in those cases ? 

 Dr. Salmon. I think not. 



Mr. . I have noticed a good many times where 



farmers have been in the habit of feeding rye fodder, — that 

 is, rye cut green and dried like hay, — that abortion was 

 very apt to occur and be carried through the herd. I have 

 known two or three formers who have had their cows abort 

 where they have been feeding rye fodder. 



Dr. Salmon. It has been considered that there was a 

 connection between these two, but I am not certain of it. 

 It is one of those things that we do not know so much about 

 as we used to think we did. 



Mr. Peter Fay of Southborough. I have a fact to the 

 very point that has been indicated in regard to abortion in 

 cows. Some thirty-eight years ago, out of a herd of thirty 

 cows, I had eighteen abort in the course of two months. At 

 that time, I wrote to different individuals in New England 

 in regard to that trouble. I never had anything of the kind 

 in my herd before. All the infoi-mation that I could derive 

 from any quarter left the matter in the dark. Some had one 

 'theory, and some another. " You keep your cows too well ; ' 

 " you feed too high;" "there is some trouble with your 

 hay ; " or " you have got something in your low lands that 

 is injurious ; " but there was nothing that gave me any satis- 

 factory information. Then some said, "You must separate 



