ILL EFFECTS OF SMUT. 81 



vised. About a quart or two of lukewarm water, without any addition but a little sweet 

 oil to lubricate the tube of the instrument, may be poured into the rectum every half hour. 

 On the second day it may be found that the medicine does not act very freely. The best 

 agent to be given then is carbonate of ammonia in half-drachm doses, twice a day, largely 

 diluted with linseed tea or gruel. Care must be taken in giving this medicine not to ex 

 coriate the mouth. As soon as the appetite returns, a succulent diet, such as grass, boiled 

 turnips, sweet hay, &c., completes the animal s restoration. 



PREVENTION. 



It is evident that all such accidents as these I have described may be completely pre 

 vented by not allowing cattle to eat indigestible corn-stalks, whether their indigestibility 

 arises from age, dryness, or smut. Mixed with an abundance of soft food such material 

 may do no harm, and, indeed, has constantly been used with impunity ; but losses are 

 very severe if cattle are compelled either to starve or to eat what may well be compared 

 to broomsticks. 



The farmer who annually loses a large amount of the produce of lands tilled at great 

 cost and trouble, should reflect that smut on corn is an evidence of bad farming, and, 

 apart from the fact of danger to the lives of the animals on the farm, it is most desirable 

 to extirpate the pest. That its eradication is possible, few will doubt who know, in case 

 of other parasitic plants, such as the rust in wheat, how effectually the seed may be puri 

 fied and a healthy plant obtained in a well-prepared soil. Having fresh land to break up 

 or old to plow again, the farmer should plow deeply and turn over the soil effectually. He 

 should obtain his seed from a district or farm that is high, dry, well-cultivated, and free 

 from smut. As the spores of Ustilago maidis are minute and in the form of impalpable 

 powder, thousands may be dispersed in a sample of corn, and grow with the plant. To 

 avoid this, dipping the grain in a solution of copperas may be found of great service. The 

 copperas, in the proportion of one pound to four bushels of corn, is to be dissolved in a 

 little warm water, and then cold water added to make about a stable -pailful; with this the 

 corn is simply washed, not soaked. Soaking makes the grain swell, and interferes with 

 sowing in machines. The corn is sown as soon as dampened with the solution. 



JOHN GAMGEE, M. D. 



Hon. HOEACE CAPRON, 



Commissioner of Agriculture. 



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