342 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



ing, through which the gas escapes. In using any 

 improvised tube one must hold to it or it may slip 

 completely within the paunch and be lost, perhaps 

 to the serious injury of the animal, though the 

 writer once lost a piece of cane reed six inches long 

 in the paunch of a sheep with no ill effect that he 

 could ever discover, but what became of it has 

 been always a mystery to him. After using the tro- 

 char, one should liberally disinfect the wound with 

 turpentine or some carbolic disinfectant. 



Cold Water or Ice. In cases of bloat there is 

 always considerable heat about the paunch, and 

 indeed the rapid fermentation must produce an en- 

 tirely unnatural heat which if it can be reduced may 

 of itself cure the complaint. I learned from a Mor- 

 mon ranch woman many years ago that ice heaped 

 on the distended back of a bloated cow, with some 

 kneading and keeping the head up hill, was a ready 

 relief. This occurred when the ranch cows used to 

 graze on frosted alfalfa in the fall and ice was at 

 hand in the irrigating ditches. I have cured bloated 

 ewes by pouring cold water on the region of the 

 paunch. 



This much space has been given the subject of 

 bloat, not because it is so very dangerous, but be- 

 cause when one has a case of it on hand he 

 is anxious to know at once what to do. The writer 

 has noted that in years when he has had trouble 

 from bloat on his alfalfa, his neighbors have had as 

 much trouble and more loss from bloat on their red 



