446 THE ENGRAVED ROCK OF KOPONG AND LOE. 



will never be seen again, unless they turn towards the west, where their 

 owner has faced. 



In the whole of Bechuanaland, when they carry a dead person to 

 be buried, they carry him with his head towards the west, and bury 

 him also with his head towards the west. The reason for this is that 

 Matsieng faced the west when he came out from Lowe, and his children, 

 when they die, are supposed to be following him. 



POISONING OF CATTLE BY D I PLOD I A-mFECTED 



MAIZE. 



By D. T. Mitchell, M.R.C.V.S., 

 Senior Veterinary Research Officer, Maritzbnrg, Natal. 



Read July lo, 1919. 



During recent years, in various parts of Natal, a number of 

 cases of paralysis in cattle have occurred when the animals have 

 been allowed access to mealie lands for grazing purposes in the 

 latter part of the winter. 



It is customary, in this Province, when harvesting mealies, 

 to discard all cobs which are badly formed, and these cobs are 

 either left on the stalk or dropped on the ground. In this way, 

 when the cattle are changed to old lands, there are considerable 

 numbers of old and damaged cobs lying around, which have been 

 exposed to the weather for some months, and these are readily 

 eaten by the cattle. Owing to this, and to the fact that the 

 cobs are to be found in many of the districts in a very mouldy 

 condition, it has been suspected by farmers, in areas where the 

 paralysis among cattle occurs, that this condition is due to eating 

 a' large quantity of these diseased mealies. Positive experi- 

 mental evidence on the subject was, however, lacking. Feeding 

 tests, carried out at the Veterinary Research Laboratory, Pretoria, 

 with material (mealies on cob) obtained in the Ixopo Division, 

 Natal, failed to give any positive results. The animals used 

 in these experiments were two sheep, two goats, one calf, and 

 one mule. The experiments were continued for three weeks, 

 during which time the calf, sheep, and goats received an average 

 total of 33 lb. of cobs per week, and the mule 15.5 lb. per week. 



During the last five weeks of the tests soaked mealies were 

 given. Ome heifer was fed on a culture of the fungus, grown 

 on crushed maize, for from one to one and a half months ; this 

 animal consumed 23 lb. of this material between the 19th and 31st 

 March. No symptoms other than a slight loss of weight could 

 be observed in any of the animals under observation. 



From the subsequent experiments on Diplodia-iniected maize 

 it would appear that the quantities fed at Pretoria were too small 

 to produce effects, or, what is more probable, that the supply of 



