THE MOST COMMON DISEASES OF SWINE 575 



CONSTIPATION 



This occurs most frequently in winter. It may be re- 

 lieved with salts or bran mashes containing sulphur. 

 Warm soapsuds used as an injection is useful, and soft 

 soap given in the feed will often afford relief. Such 

 foods as pumpkins, apples or roots are \-ery helpful as 

 correctives, and usually will be sufficient to bring about 

 a normal condition. 



DEATHS PROM EATING COCKLEBURS 



Every year there are reports of losses of swine 

 "poisoned" by eating cockleburs or cocklebur plants. 

 These reports almost invariably describe the losses as 

 occurring at times when the hogs have access to ground 

 where young cocklebur plants have made a growth of but 

 2 or 3 inches. The hogs eat these plants and root up and 

 eat some of the burs from which they are growing, with 

 sometimes, but not always, fatal results. It appears 

 that such slight investigations as have been made, so far, 

 have not definitely demonstrated whether the hogs are 

 poisoned by some property in tlie young plant, or in the 

 meat of the bur, or wliethcr it is taking the bur, or rather 

 its rough and irritating hull, into the stomach, that does 

 the harm. The exact nature of the ailment, or its cure, 

 are not known ; hence immunity is only assured by keep- 

 ing swine off ground infested with cockleburs. In send- 

 ing up its shoot the hull or outer, rough coating of the 

 bur is carried on top of the young plant, and in graz- 

 ing on the plants, swine are liable to swallow the coat- 

 ings, some of which may find lodgment in the throat. 



