NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 459 
or on the root of the tail; for any enlargement, firmness, or tenderness 
of the udder; or in dry cows examine for milk; and above all for any 
slight straining suggestive of labor pains. 
In many cases the membranes are discharged with the fetus; in others, 
in advanced pregnancy, they fail to come away, and remain hanging 
from the vulva, putrefying and falling piecemeal, finally resulting in 
fetid discharge from the womb. According to the size of the herd, con- 
tagious abortions will follow one another at intervals of one to four or 
more weeks, in the order of their infection or of the recurrence of the 
period of activity of the womb which corresponds to the occurrence of 
heat. 
Prevention. — Weakness and bloodlessness are to be obviated by gen- 
erous feeding, and especially in ailments (wheat uran, rape cake, cotton 
seed, oats, barley, beans, peas, etc.), rich in earthy salts, which will also 
serve to correct the morbid appetitie. This will also regenerate the ex- 
hausted soil if the manure is returned to it. In the same way the ap- 
plication of ground bones or phosphates will correct the evil, acting in 
this case through the soil first and raising better food for the stock. The 
ravages of worms are to be obviated by avoiding infested pastures, ponds, 
streams, shallow w-ells, or those receiving any surface leakage from land 
where stock go, and by feeding salt at will, as this agent is destructive 
to most young worms. 
The tendency to urinary calculi in winter is avoided by a succulent 
diet (ensilage, steamed food, roots, pumpkins apples, potatoes, slops), and 
by the avoidance of the special causes named under "Gravel." Furnishing 
water inside the barn in winter in place of driving once a day to take 
their fill of ice cold water will obviate a common evil. Putrid and stag- 
nant waters are to be avoided. Sudden changes of food are always rep- 
rehensible, but much more so in the pregnant animal. Let the change 
be gradual. Carefully avoid the use of spoiled or unwholesome food. 
In case of prevalence of ergot in a pasture it should be kept eaten 
down or cut dewn with a mower so that no portion runs to seed. In 
case of a meadow the grass must be cut early before the seeds have filled. 
The most dangerous time appears to be between the formation of the 
milky seed and the full ripening. Yet the ergot is larger in proportion to 
the ripeness, so that the loss of potency is made up in quantity. The 
ripe seed and ergot may be removed by thrashing and the hay safely fed. 
It may also be noted that both ergot and smut may be safely fed in mod- 
erate quantity, provided it is used with succulent food (ensilage, roots, 
etc.) or with free access to water, and salt is an excellent accessory as en- 
couraging the animal to drink. Both ergot and smut are most injurious 
in W'inter, when the water supply is frozen up or accessible only at long 
intervals. The ergoted seed when thrashed out can not be safely sown, 
but if first boiled it may be fed in small amount or turned into manure. 
The growth of both ergot and smut may be to a large extent prevented by 
the time-honored Scotch practice of sprinkling the seed with a saturated 
solution of sulphate of copper before sowing. 
Fields badly affected with ergot or smut may be practically renewed 
by plowing up and cultivating for a series of years under crops (turnips, 
