82 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



have goue to build up tlie large quantities of smut iuvesting tliem, are 

 essentially dry, indigestible nuiterial for any animal to live on, and 

 especially when excluded from other food. That is qnite sufficient to 

 account for the development of dry murrain that commonly attacks 

 cattle in the United States, and was more frequent than usual last 

 winter. 



Diversifying and multiplying experiments on this qnestion will undoubt- 

 edly result in some interesting information, and I am qnite confident 

 that it will be fully demonstrated that smutty corn cannot be safely, and 

 certainly cannot economically be used as a food for cattle, and should 

 not be allowed them without a great admixture of hay and other nutri. 

 tious food. The more water and succulent food cattle are allowed while 

 eating cornstalks, the less liable they will be to a deadly constipation 

 and gastric impaction. Numerous and even angry discussions have in 

 times past been carried on in different parts of Europe in relation to 

 the action of moldy, musty, or otherwise damaged fodder on the lower 

 animals, and a few observations on the results of feeding horses, &c., 

 on hay and grain tainted hj fungi may be regarded as of importance 

 here, if only as a means of comi^arison. 



The evident tendency is to derange the alimentary canal in the first 

 place, then disturb the i)rocess of nutrition or assimilation, and lastlj' 

 to excite the emunctories for the discharge of noxious principles, and 

 more particularly inducing an excessive secretion of urine, or diarrhea. 



MUSTY HAY. 



It has frequently been observed that the imperfect making of hay, 

 esi)ecially during wet seasons, is followed by serious derangements 

 among horses, mules, and other animals, which suffer from severe indi- 

 gestion, impaction of the stomach accompanied by vertigo, or the pro- 

 fuse discharge of clear-colored lu'ine, with an intolerable thirst, emacia- 

 tion, weakness, and death. It is said that the Hungarian haj', in 

 different parts of America, and especially in parts ot Kentucky, Mis- 

 souri, and Kansas, is apt to cause considerable losses, if cut after full 

 inflorescence and late in the season. I have been told by Kansas farmers 

 that great attention has to be paid to a sufficiently early hay-making in 

 order to avoid accidents. 



In 1855 I witnessed in Lyons, France, a large amount of disease and 

 many deaths among horses, from the great al)undance of musty hay, 

 gathered during an unusuallj'^ w^et season. Scarcely a day passed but 

 one or more cart horses were literally dragged to the veterinary college. 

 They moved along with hanging head, sunken eye, depended lip, ami 

 tottering gait, suffering from pains in the abdomen, and considerable 

 tympanitis; partial sweats bedewed the body, the visible mucous mem- 

 branes were of an intensely yellow color, and the urine dark. On reach- 

 ing a loose box, the patients were tied to a center post, which turned as 

 they moved round, and prevented them liom dashing their heads against 



