24 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 347 



Nutritional Anemia in Cattle in Southeastern Massachusetts. (J. G. Archibald 

 and K. J. Kucinski.) This work has been done in cooperation with the Agronomy 

 Department and with representatives of the Wirthmore feed organization. A 

 paper on the subject, bearing the title appearing above, has been accepted for 

 publication in the Journal of Dairy Science but has not yet appeared in print. 

 A summary of the study follows: 



A disease of cattle locally known as "neck ail," of long standing in certain 

 localities of southeastern Massachusetts, has been shown to be identical with 

 nutritional anemia of cattle occurring in various widely scattered portions of the 

 world and known by various names. The disease is characterized by emaciation, 

 loss of appetite, and a diminution in the red blood cells and in the hemoglobin 

 content of the blood of affected animals. It is caused by an insufificient amount 

 of iron in the native forage which in turn is due to a very low content of iron in 

 the soils on which the forage is grown. As with cases reported by other investiga- 

 tors, spectacular recovery has followed the administration of iron compounds to 

 the affected animals. 



Addition of an iron compound (iron ammonium citrate) to soils from farms 

 where the disease had occurred, resulted in a uniform large increase in the per- 

 centage of iron in grasses grown on these soils. This suggests an alternative 

 method for prevention of the disease. 



Investigation of the Merits of Molasses-Grass Silage for our Particular Condi- 

 tions. (J. G. Archibald and C. H. Parsons.) Preliminary work was done on this 

 problem last year. Funds were not available for the erection of a permanent silo, 

 so a temporary silo made from snow fence and building paper was erected in which 

 35 tons of green grass were preserved with approximately 2300 pounds of mo- 

 lasses. This arrangement proved only partially satisfactory. Due perhaps to 

 inexperience in erecting the temporary silo there was much more waste than is 

 ordinarily the case in the preservation of crops by ensiling. The limited feeding 

 trials possible with the amount of silage available indicated that it was at least 

 as good as dry hay for milk production. 



During the present year funds were obtained for the dismantling of a 100-ton 

 silo at the Brooks farm barn no longer in use there, and its re-erection on a con- 

 crete base at the main dairy barn. When re-erected the structure was insulated 

 with a special felt base heavy building paper and the whole reinforced with a 

 spiral casing of redwood veneer. This makes a very satisfactory permanent 

 triple-wall silo, for all practical purposes the equivalent of a new structure, at a 

 somewhat smaller cost. In June of this year there were stored in this silo 114 

 tons of chopped grass mixed with 4 tons of molasses, much of the work being done 

 under weather conditions which made ordinary haymaking impossible. An 

 extensive feeding trial comparing the grass silage with corn silage and also with 

 dry hay for milk production is now in progress and will be continued until the end 

 of the barn feeding season the latter part of April. 



Daughters' Records Alone versus Daughter-Dam Comparisons in Predicting 

 Transmitting Abilities of Dairy Bulls. (V. A. Rice.) A previous study of records 

 in the Guernsey breed had indicated that when pedigrees of bulls could be made 

 complete for two generations by including indexes of the bulls therein and records 

 on the cows, the transmitting abilities of these bulls for milk production and 

 percentage of fat could be fairly accurately ascertained. In the previous work 

 the dams' and granddams' records were averaged with their respective sire's 

 indexes and this figure used as the transmitting ability or index of the cows. 

 The index of the immediate sire was averaged with the transmitting index of the 

 dam and .6 of this amount added to .4 of the average of the indexes of the two 



