42 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
exciting cause is assumed to be eating of large quantities of corn-stalks 
without a sufficient supply of water. A herd of one hundred and two 
steers, all in apparent health, were taken from a poor pasture and put 
in a fresh stallk-field in Marshall County, Illinois, and fourteen were found 
dead the next morning, and five more on the following morning. . In 
. Dane County, Wisconsin, a number of deaths occurred after the cattle 
were turned into the stalk-fields. In Kansas losses were heavy from 
this cause; two hundred died in Coffey County, and some in Shawnee 
and Osage. The report from Jackson, Iowa, attributes losses to the 
corn-stalks, “causing engorgement of the paunch, and laceration, in- 
flammation, and death;” and similar loss appears in Black Hawk, 
Bremer, Harrison, Lee, Chickasaw, and Delaware; in the latter, “post 
moriem examination discloses in the folds of the stomach a dark sub- 
Stance, similar to smut, which it is believed to be.” In Hillsdale and 
Barry, Michigan, in Holt, Missouri, and in Houston, Minnesota, similar 
effects of eating stalks are reported. In Roanoke, Virginia, one-eighth of 
ane catile have died, ‘‘supposed to be caused by grazing in wheat- 
elds. 
Pleuro-pneumonia, for several years so fatal in the vicinity of Baltimore 
and the District of Columbia, and to some extent in the neighborhood 
of Philadelphia, has been less prevalent during the past season. 
Black leg.—This disease occasions the death of many young cattle each 
spring, in every section of the country, generally attacking those in good 
condition, and ending in death. It is not reported in New England; in 
New York a few cases are mentioned in Ontario and Chautauqua; in 
Albermarle and Highland, Virginia; in Harrison, West Virginia; in 
Mercer, Ohio, twenty fatal cases; a few deaths in Noble, Ohio; several 
fatal cases in Winona and McLeod, Minnesota; in Iowa, losses. in 
Chickasaw, Plymouth, and Jackson; considerable loss among youn 
cattle in Nemaha, Pawnee, and Washington, Nebraska; and many fa 
cases in Coffey, Howard, Riley, and Shawnee, Kansas. 
Charbon.—This virulent disease has nearly disappeared from the 
South. The report from St. Mary’s Parish, Louisiana, says: ‘ Malig- 
nant pustule, or charbon, carried off twelve mules on one plantation.” 
Murrain.—tit is to be regretted that a more accurate knowledge of cat- 
tle*diseases does not exist among the farmers of the country. The use 
of the words “murrain,” “dry murrain,” “bloody murrain,” and “ dis- 
temper,” is common in the reports, and other meaningless terms are ap- 
plied to diseases having a great diversity of symptoms. 
Among all the diseases named, perhaps starvation, with its various 
aliases, as “‘general debility,” “hollow-horn,” “horn-ail,” or “ hollow- 
belly,” is productive of greater loss than any other. Neglect, exposure, 
insufficient or irregular feeding, and no feeding whatever, are prolific 
causes of weakness, disease, prostration, and death. 
DISEASES OF HORSES. 
Diseases among horses have not been unusually prevalent or fatal. 
Comparatively few cases are reported from northern latitudes. The 
most frequent mention is made of * blind staggers,” which has prevailed 
in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Calvert and Queen Anne’s, in Mary- 
land; Sampson, Tyrrell, Duplin, Hertford, and Orange, North Carolina; 
Bartow, Richmond, and Walker, Georgia; Calhoun and Etowah, Ala- 
bama; Uvalde, Rusk, and Red River, Texas; Benton, Arkansas; Sevier, 
Meigs, Coffee, Monroe, Jefferson, Robertson, and Knox, Tennessee; 
Butler, Cedar, Newton, and Taney, Missouri. Lung fever is noticed in 
Indiana County, Pennsylvania, iu the lumbering region, and in Beaver 
