7(3 DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



On the 7th of March the amount of smut given in each feed was increased to six 

 ounces. The cow fed on dry food lost flesh. On the 15th of March the dose of smut was 

 increased to twelve ounces three times a day. The cow on the wet food gained in condi 

 tion. The other one lost. In three weeks the two cows consumed the forty-two pounds 

 of smut ; they had a voracious appetite the whole time, and the only indication of a peculiar 

 diet was a very black color of the excrement, and the loss of flesh by one animal although 

 fed liberally on nutritious diet, which, however, was given in a dry state. 



On the 12th of March the temperature of both cows was tested, and found 102. 2 

 and 102.4 Fahrenheit. 



No conclusions of importance can be drawn from a single experiment ; but it is evi- 

 dent that smut is not a very active poison in combination with wholesome food, and espe 

 cially if the animal is allowed moist food and plenty of water to drink. Cattle will eat the 

 smut greedily, and possibly a morbid taste for it is acquired, as has been observed in pigs. 

 It is evident that cornstalks, when starch and other nutritive elements have gone to build 

 up the large quantities of smut investing them, are essentially dry, indigestible material for 

 any animal to live on, and especially when excluded from other food. That is quite suf 

 ficient to account for the development of the dry murrain that so commonly attacks cattle 

 in the United States, and was more frequent than usual last winter. 



Diversifying and multiplying experiments on this question will undoubtedly result in 

 some interesting information, and I am quite confident that it will be fully demonstrated 

 that smutty corn cannot be used safely, and certainly not economically, as a food 

 for cattle, and should not be allowed them without a great admixture of hay and other 

 nutritious food. The more water and succulent food cattle are allowed while eating corn 

 stalks, the less liable they will be to a deadly constipation and gastric impaction. Numer 

 ous and even angry discussions have in times past been carried on in different parts of 

 Europe in relation to the action of mouldy, musty, or otherwise damaged fodder on the 

 lower animals, and a few observations on the results of feeding horses, &c., on hay and 

 grain tainted by fungi may be regarded as of importance here, if only as a means of com 

 parison. 



The evident tendency is to derange the alimentary canal in the first place, then to 

 disturb the process of nutrition or assimilation, and lastly to excite the emunctories for 

 the discharge of noxious principles, more particularly by inducing an excessive secretion 

 of uiine, or diarrhoea. 



MUSTY HAY. 



It has frequently been observed that the imperfect curing of hay, especially during 

 wet seasons, is followed by serious derangements among horses, mules, and other animals, 

 which suffer from severe indigestion, impaction of the stomach accompanied by vertigo, or 

 the profuse discharge of clear-colored urine, with intolerable thirst, emaciation, weak 

 ness, and death. It is said that the Hungarian hay, in different parts of America, and 

 especially in parts of Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas, is apt to cause considerable losses, 

 if cut after full inflorescence and late in the season. I have been told by Kansas farmers 

 that great attention has to be paid to a sufficiently early hay-making in order to avoid 

 accidents. 



