EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 533 



mares that can be worked on the farm, and hence they cannot make 

 much headway in getting rid of the grasses that must be grown in the 

 rotation on the quarter section farm. Hogs will of course be grown in 

 increasing numbers, but the hog is not primarily a grass-eating animal, 

 and hence he cannot get away with the pastures that the rotation ab- 

 solutely requires. Sheep will do better; but the parasitic enemies of 

 sheep will prevent their being grown in sufficient numbers on a grass 

 farm in the humid states to meet the requirements of the needed ro- 

 tation. Hence the only thing left is cattle, either to be grown for the 

 chance of a calf, or to be purchased elsewhere and fed out. or to be 

 kept for both milk and beef production. Breeders should therefore 

 listen to the voice of the corn root louse, the corn root worm, the corn 

 root borer, and the mold that is affecting the corn fields in so many 

 sections this year, pleading with farmers to adopt systems of rotation, 

 and then supply these farms with live stock adapted to that purpose. 



THE OVERHEATED HORSE. 



By A. S. Alexander, Breeders' Gazette. 



It puzzles many a farmer to explain why some horses seem es- 

 pecially prone to heat exhaustion or sunstroke and they are also at a 

 loss to know how to ward off the attack or to treat it intelligently when 

 first observed. It may therefore be of interest to explain that apparently 

 every horse attacked with sunstroke is ailing the day of attack and 

 otherwise would not be affected. If this be not so it certainly is difficult 

 to explain just why one horse suffers out of a number kept in the same 

 stable and fed and managed alike; but if we keep a careful watch 

 over the horses in our care it becomes possible in many instances to de- 

 tect slight departures from normal conditions which may be taken as 

 premonitory of serious trouble if not checked in time. Inability to 

 stand work in hot weather, when not due to a previous attack of heat 

 exhaustion, seems dependent upon disturbance of the digestive organs. 

 Indigestion, in short, usually is present when a horse suddenly shows 

 the symptoms of distress which are characteristic of heat exhaustion 

 and which precede sunstroke or "heat apoplexy" as it might better be 

 termed. This indigestion does not always appear immediately before 

 or just at the time of the attack; it may come on gradually, or has 

 been chronic in the subject attacked and quiet unfits him for hard 

 work in the field during the heated term, did the owner but recognize 

 the trouble and appreciate the danger it entails. 



The horse affected with indigestion of chronic form sheds late or 

 tardily, has a tightness of Skin indicating emaciation or lack of perfect 

 health and often the hajr remains long and course and tends to stand 

 on end while the ribs are too apparent and the horse lacks spirit, vigor, 

 appetite and staying qualities. Such symptoms, however, may be indica- 

 tive of several different ailments, or indeed of almost any depleting 

 sickness the nature of which is not patent to the eye of the attendant. 

 Any one of these weakening maladies renders a horse peculiarly subject 

 to sunstroke so that its known presence should make the owner or at- 



