44 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



Pemisylvania, Iowa, and Missouri, and why uot also in Kansas? Wlio 

 outside of the immediate vicinity of the suftering herds would have 

 heard of the outbreak under consideration had it not been for the mis- 

 taken diagnosis that led the country to fear the presence of a dangerous 

 contagious disease ? 



Again, would not this reasoning apply to any supposed cause of the 

 disease as well as to ergot ? No matter what produced the disease, if 

 such an outbreak lias never occurred before it might be said with just 

 as much force, "Why, then, is this the tirst outbreak?" 



"Again," the same gentleman goes on to say, "on Mr. Goodrich's 

 farm, where the disease prevails, the lands are improved by cultivation, 

 and there is no ergotized rye in his hay. Yet out of 90 cattle, 40 headi 

 of young stock are reported affected with the disease." This fact was; 

 the most troublesome of all I had to contend with in making my diag- 

 nosis, and I appreciated its importance perhaps as much as ray critic* 

 could have appreciated it. The gentleman's statement is not absolutely 

 correct, however, as there was a small quantity of ergoted rye in the- 

 hay; but still there was so much less than was seen at the other farms 

 as to make it impossible to explain why the cattle here should be affected 

 even to a greater degree than elsewhere. In ray preliminary report I 

 explained this by saying that wild rye was known to grow in i:>atches,. 

 and that, consequently, hay that was being fed at one time could uot 

 be considered as exactly the same as that fed three mouths before.. 

 The apparent discrepancy in this case has since been explained, how- 

 ever, in a much more satisfactory manner. Some time last fall Mr.. 

 Goodrich bought two stacks of hay of Mr. Keith, and it was this hay 

 that he had been feeding to his cattle up to the time of the outbreak of 

 the disease. When this fact was learned the whole matter became per- 

 fectly clear, and what at first appeared the greatest objection to the- 

 ergot theory turned out to be one of its strongest supports. 



Then Mr. Beard is mentioned as having fed 75 head of cattle all win- 

 ter on hay full of ergot, and escaped with but 5 diseased animals. Mr, 

 Beard, however, had fed his cattle twice a day on corn-fodder, that is^ 

 on corn which had been shocked but not husked, and as a natural con- 

 sequence his cattle ate very much less of the hay. 



" Stranger still for the ergot theory, Mr. Pribbernow fed 195 cattle 

 on millet hay and corn-fodder, and he has 14 of liisyoung stock affected." 

 Here, again, the zeal of the gentleman to make out a case against the 

 ergot theory- has led him to make statements which are not correct. 

 Mr. Pribbernow had some very badly ergoted hay, which he showed to 

 me, and told me that he had been feeding it to his cattle ; and, indeed,, 

 there was plenty of evidence that this was the case from the conditions 

 of the feeding yards and racks. It is a fact, however, that 54 yearlings 

 were fed on millet hay, oats, and corn-fodder in addition to the hay, and 

 that not one of these was affected. The older cattle had been fed more 



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