Pasture .Deficiencies. 543 



presenting normal appearances, are lacking at the same time 

 in phosphates of lime and other compounds which serve to 

 strengthen and nourish the ossein, which goes to develop the 

 skeleton of the animal. To remedy this deficiency in the soil, dairy- 

 men have given bone-meal to their stock, and while the practice is 

 highly to be commended, the greatest caution is requisite in selecting 

 the meal, as several outbreaks of anthrax have within the past two 

 years been traced to the use of Indian bone-meal. Heavy losses have 

 resulted from its use, whether supplied directly to the stock as an 

 article of diet, or with fodder grown on the land which has been 

 treated with bone-meal. When this condition exists in stock it is 

 much better to add crushed oats or bran to their food, or phosphate 

 of lime. This last costs very little, and may be given in 4 drachm 

 doses combined witli sulphate of iron. It has been brought under 

 my notice that stock when first turned upon stubble lands which have 

 been manured with superphosphate, care little for herbage growing' 

 thereon, but after a few days the dislike appears to pass away and 

 they thrive well, much better thau they do on adjoining fields which 

 have not been so treated. 



Impaction. 



Very many cases of impaction and injuries to the stomach and its 

 pouches in ruminants bear evidence to the fact that want of salt and 

 iron in the pasturage has induced lack of tone in the stomach, and 

 the frenzied desire on the part of the animal to supply this want has 

 been the cause of its death. In the mountainous districts of the State, 

 stock in their quest for salt often discover narrow patches on the 

 banks of creeks or gullies having a salty flavour, which they lick with 

 avidity, often becoming entombed and crushed by the falling down 

 of the roofs of the tunnels they have made in search of salt. Post 

 mortem examinations of stock in such localities always reveal the 

 presence of large numbers of worms in the stomach, yet when cattle 

 are taken from these localities to where salt and iron are plentiful, 

 they fatten rapidly, and on autopsy no trace of their former tormentors 

 is found. Again, in marshy, wet, and low-lying lands fluke is often 

 very pronounced, and salt with iron placed in troughs where the 

 stock can have ready access to it, will invariably be found to assist 

 the animal's constitution against these attacks. Says Bunge in 

 reference to sodium and potassium salts : — " Owing to the poorness 

 of vegetable food in sodium salts, the' administration of common salt 

 with the food of herbivora is a necessity — (F. Smith). And again, in 

 spite of the many inorganic salts found in the food, one only, viz., 

 sodium chloride, is taken by the human subject in addition to that 

 already existing in the food. The explanation of the desire shown by 

 herbivora for common salt lies in the large amount of potassium 

 consumed in their diet, the effect of potassium salts being to withdraw 

 sodium salts from the system. Iron as supplied by the food is organic, 

 and the haemoglobin of the blood is formed from the complex organic 

 compounds of iron which are produced by the vital processes of the 

 plant — (F. Smith)." While not asserting there would be no cases of 



