HO PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



Disease. The Pictou cattle-disease is only found in Canada, in a dis- 

 trict spread along the northern shore of the Nova Scotia peninsula, a tract 

 of country extending about forty miles along that coast and stretching 

 from five to twelve miles inland. In this district, it has been noted for 

 some forty years, now at one end of the area, now at the other. Cattle 

 are in the main affected, but cases are on record in which sheep and even 

 horses have shown symptoms of the disease. The disease would seem to 

 be very chronic, and all the cattle upon a farm are not affected simultane- 

 ously. What appears to be a similar disease has been recorded in Great 

 Britain and in Germany, but the ragwort has not been associated ap- 

 parently with the disease as its cause. 



Symptoms. The most detailed account of the symptoms come from 

 New Zealand where the disease has occurred in the Southland and hi a 

 small portion of the Waikato district, Auckland Province, in the Wairaropa 

 district and probably on the west coast of the South Island. The most 

 notable symptoms in horses are a weak, staggering, swaying gait, when 

 standing a tendency to stamp with one or both hind feet, twitching of the 

 muscles, an amaurotic condition of the pupils, yellowness of the visible 

 mucous membranes, a clammy condition of the mouth, irregular and gen- 

 erally weak intermittent pulse, a depraved appetite and a normal tem- 

 perature. The earliest noticeable symptom is drowsiness and general 

 dullness. There is a depraved appetite, the horse eating barn yard rub- 

 bish. There is inability to completely coordinate the muscles and in 

 advanced stages difficulty to keep from falling. There are symptoms like 

 drunkenness, a staggering, swaying gait followed by a frenzied condition, 

 such as madness, head held high, etc. Soon the animal falls down unable 

 to rise. Later the horse becomes unconscious, complete coma sets in 

 and death rapidly comes. 



In dairy cows, the first notable symptom is diminution of the milk 

 supply. Later the milk has the peculiar odor of the animal's skin with an 

 acrid flavor. There is rapid emaciation, a voracious appetite, or a total 

 absence of any desire for food. Jaundice is more or less pronounced. 

 Dropsy of the abdomen is frequently observed, while the animal is alive. 

 There is a similar want of coordination of the muscles, as in horses, and 

 there is always chronic diarrhoea of a most persistent type accompany- 

 ing the rapid emaciation. Feeding cattle and cows kept for purely breed- 

 ing purposes, do not exhibit quite the same symptoms. Diarrhoea is 

 not nearly so acute, dropsy of the abdomen is not so evident, and whereas 



