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On Hoven Cattle. By Richard Peters. 



Read July 9th, 1805. 



The clover husbandry being now, happily for the 

 parts of our country heretofore worn out and sterile, ve- 

 ly prevalent, it behoves us to extinguish all prejudices, 

 against this great and extensive improvement. One 

 evil, attending luxuriant clover, whether plaistered or 

 not, is immaterial; (though some have, without reason, 

 supposed a difference,) is the subjecting cattle to become 

 hoven, by too greedily feeding on this grass, when it is 

 growing, or when cut, and given to them green, while 

 it is wet with dew or rain. — Horned cattle paiticularly, 

 when turned in hungry, though ever so much accus- 

 tomed to clover, are liable to this misfortune. — Young 

 and soft clover, loaded with dew or rain, is the most 

 productive of this disease. They therefore should not 

 be turned in, till after the dew or rain is exhaled. Beasts 

 kept constantly in the field, are not in danger, in so great 

 a degree ; horses do not always escape. Swine and 

 sheep, are also subject to this malady. Any succulent 

 and juicy food, if moist with rain or dew, has a capacit}" 

 to generate the air, which, by its expansion in the ani- 

 mal, produces hoving. — Lucerne, pea-vine, green Indi- 

 an com plants, and buckwheat, have, mider my own 

 observation, occasioned this destructive complaint. 



Symptoms. The paunch is so enormously swelled, 

 that unless relief be promptly afforded, death ensues : 

 in the last stages of this disease, the tongue hangs out 

 of the mouth, the eyes are full and protuberant, and the 



