FARMER'S 

 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



DISEASES OF ANIMALS 



FARM HYGIENE 



Health is an absolutely necessary pre- 

 requisite to the accomplishment of prof- 

 itable results from animal industry. So 

 long as animals are not in health they do 

 not have good appetite, and, therefore, 

 fail to make suitable gains in weight 

 or to perform other valuable service 

 such as work, in the case of horses, milk 

 yield, in the case of dairy cows, or wool 

 and mohair, in the case of sheep and 

 goats. The domestic fowls likewise 

 fail to yield any returns even from 

 the small amount of feed consumed, 

 so long as they are not in health. It 

 becomes necessary, therefore, to look 

 after the hygienic conditions of animals 

 not only for the reason that otherwise 

 no profits can be made, but also in order 

 to prevent the permanent infection of 

 premises in the case of outbreaks of in- 

 fectious diseases and to prevent endan- 

 gering the lives of the farm help and 

 others who may use produce coming 

 from the farm. 



Importance of good feed — Animals, 

 like human beings, are susceptible to va- 

 rious unfavorable conditions in their 

 environment. One of the highly impor- 

 tant considerations to bear in mind in 

 animal industry is the necessity of fur- 

 nishing clean, wholesome forage. It re- 

 quires but little consideration of this 

 point to realize how much this impor- 

 tant factor in profitable animal industry 

 has been neglected. A chemical analy- 

 sis of a feeding stuff shows its feeding 

 value, but this analysis is based on clean, 

 wholesome samples and the percentages 

 of nutrients obtained do not apply to the 

 same feeding stuffs when the latter are 

 for any reason in unsatisfactory condi- 

 tion. In the first place it may be stated 

 that, under ordinary conditions, feeding 

 stuffs cannot be maintained for an in- 

 definite period without suffering some 



harm. They lose slightly in feeding 

 value by long keeping even when the 

 conditions for the preservation are the 

 best which it is possible to obtain. 



Changes due to moisture — As a result 

 of changes in the moisture content of 

 the air they may at times absorb enough 

 water to cause fermentations or to favor 

 the development of molds and other 

 fungi all of which processes have the 

 effect not only of reducing the nutritive 

 value of these feeds, but also of render- 

 ing them more or less injurious or actu- 

 ally dangerous. Thus hay, corn fodder 

 and other materials stacked in the field 

 are subjected to the injurious effects of 

 weathering and are generally diminished 

 in value as a result of the increasing 

 penetration of rain into the material and 

 by the rotting and fermentation due to 

 the development of molds. 



Silage and other feeds — Silage, under 

 the proper conditions, normally under- 

 goes a fermentation which is considered 

 beneficial, but when carried too far, or 

 when an attempt is made to keep the 

 material too long, a loss is suffered in its 

 feeding value and it becomes less pala- 

 table. Grain preserved in granaries even 

 under the best conditions gradually be- 

 comes dusty, dries out to an undesirable 

 extent, thus becoming less palatable and 

 presumably somewhat less nutritious. 

 At the same time, unless conditions are 

 unusually favorable, it is .likely to ab- 

 sorb odors from various sources so as to 

 render it less suitable for animal feed. 



Other undesirable changes in feeding 

 stuffs — The above unfavorable changes 

 are mentioned as occurring in feeding 

 stuffs which have been harvested in ex- 

 cellent condition and stored under suit- 

 able arrangements. The undesirable 

 changes in the condition of feeding stuffs 

 take place more rapidly and are of 

 greater extent when these materials are 



