ILL EFFECTS OF SMUTTY CORN ON CATTLE. 87 



TREATMENT. 



I liave foiiiicl tlie accidents resulting from tlie feeding of smutty corn 

 to cattle very amenable to treatment. Almost all tlie animals die unless 

 relieved, but it is not difidcult to treat them very successfully. At first 

 a purgative must be administered; such as a pound or a pound and a 

 half of Epsom salts, or Glauber's salts alone, or combined with aloes, 

 suli)hur, ginger. The following is a desirable purging drink : 



Sulphate of magnesia 1 pound. 



Powdered aloes 4 drachms. 



Powdered ginger •. 2 drachms. 



Water 1 quart. 



This to be given in warm linseed tea, oat-meal, gruel or pure water. 

 A pound or two of treacle with eight drachms of aloes or with a pint of 

 linseed or sweet oil may be used when the salts are not at hand. Cattle 

 should be induced to drink either plain water or linseed tea. Common 

 salt will create thirst, and for this purpose may be given in such quan- 

 tities as will not make the liquid too salt to be palatable. Warm water 

 injections are of the highest importance, and for this i)urpose the enema 

 funnel,* which can be made by any tinsmith at a charge of about fifty 

 cents, is the best instrument yet devised. About a quart or two of 

 lukewarm water, without any addition but a little sweet oil to lubricate 

 the tube of the instrument, may be poured into the rectum every half 

 hour. On the second day it may be found that the medicine does not 

 act very freely. The best agent to be given then is carbonate of ammo- 

 nia in half-drachm doses, twice a day, largely diluted with linseed tea 

 or gruel. Care must be taken in giving this medicine not to excoriate 

 the mouth. As soon as the appetite returns, a succulent diet, such as 

 gTass, boiled turnips, charbeters, sweet hay, &c., completes the animal's 

 restoration. 



PREVENTION. 



It is evident that all such accidents as these I have described may be 

 completely prevented by not allowing cattle to eat indigestible corn- 

 stalks, whether their indigestibility arises from age, dryness, or smut. 

 Mixed with an abundance of soft food such material may do no harm, 

 and indeed has constantly been used with impunity; but losses are very 

 severe if cattle are compelled either to starve or to eat what may well 

 be compared to broomsticks. 



The farmer who annually loses a large amount of the produce of lands 

 tilled at great cost and trouble, should reflect that smut on corn is only 

 •evidence of bad larming, and, apart from the fact of danger to lives of 



* This is an ordinary tin funnel, capable of holding one quart, with the pipe bent at 

 right angles, about ten inches long from the bend, with the extremity rounded by a 

 mass of soft sohler to prevent the rectum being injured by the insertion of the sharp 

 edges of the pipe. The contents How into the intestine by gravitation. 



