EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF CORRESPONDENTS. 



VARIOUS DISEASES. 



On the 2d of January, 1887, Mr. D. W. G. Benbow, Greensborough, 

 K C., wrote as follows concerning a disease then prevailing among 

 liis horses and mules : 



I have a lot of mares and colts, six months of age and one and two-year-olds, I 

 have a large stable, weather-boarded, sash and glass to give light, with one weather- 

 boarding off of two sides, which is closed during cold spells. Two weeks ago one 

 of the mares in foal quit eating and seemed tcr have no use of her hinder parts. We 

 helped her up but she was unable to stand. She lay for two days and died. Upon 

 opening her, all the organs seemed healthy except her kidneys, which were black, 

 terribly congested, and almost rotten. There was considerable water in her bladder. 

 There was but little food in the stomach, as she had eaten very little for a few days 

 previous to her death, but the stench from the carcass was terribly offensive. Some 

 of the other animals seemed to be improving, but at the same time another mare 

 not in foal quit eating. There was an effusive issue of matter from the nose unlike 

 that discharged in distemper, but had more the appearance of half -digested wheat 

 straw, She lingered only a few days. She went to water last Sunday forenoon, 

 but seemed unable to drink, yet appeared to want water. She then walked to the 

 rear of the lot, lay down and died ( in a few minutes without a struggle. Upon 

 opening her we found the lungs a mass of corruption rotten, greenish inside, and 

 covered with slime and mucus. The texture was of no strength whatever. The 

 inner wall or lining tissue of the ribs looked as though it had sloughed off. In 

 pressing open the carcass all above the diaphragm seemed rotten and would break 

 without effort. Before death the animal vomited like a dog, raising a white, frothy, 

 greenish-tinged, substance, which I thought had been swallowed and caused nausea. 

 Last Wednesday six more animals showed symptoms of the disease. I sent 24 well 

 onej out to another farm, where the quarters are not so good, and they will there 

 be exposed to severe weather. Last night a one-year old colt died. Examination 

 developed some of the conditions of the last mare described. The stench from this 

 animal was simply horrible. I have fed these animals on ensilage, meal, bran, wheat 

 ground up and corn on the cob, with wheat and rye straw cut before it was ripe and 

 cured for dry feed, My cows are fed on the same, with the exception of corn in 

 the ear, and seem to do well on it. I am feeding only hay to the horses I sent off to 

 rough it. I already had there 40 yearlings, a mare ana 5 mule colts six months 

 old, which had been fed on hay, and all were looking well. 



Mr. M. Erskine Miller, Staunton, Ya., writing under date of Janu- 

 ary 10, 1887, says : 



I recently lost a fine young bull only fifteen months old. He seemed to have in- 

 digestion two days before Tie died. I was away and did not retnrn until after 

 he had died. My herdsman informed me that he noticed two weeks before he 

 died a swelling on top of his loins, which would rise and fall, and which he 

 did not think much of as the animal appeared to be in good health and took his 

 food well. He died December 25. Yesterday we discovered a young cow slightly 

 swollen in the same place. She seemed in good health and doing well. She 

 calved in August, and the past month has increased in her milk. She is a little 

 tender over the swelling in the loin. To-day it seems better, or not so much swollen. 

 When the bull died he was very much swollen, as if suffering with bloat. I sent 

 his carcass to a fertilizing factory, and they reported his kidneys as very soft, and 

 in their judgment very much disorganized," but as he died forty-eight hours before 

 they opened him I thought the condition of his kidneys was due to the length of 

 time that had elapsed before the examination was made; but since the swelling in 

 the young cow at the same place I have felt uneasy lest it may be something serious. 

 I opened a silo on the 6th of December, and I am not altogether satisfied that it is 

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