90 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



allowed to become injured by bad 

 weather conditions, faulty storing, or 

 from the existence of fungous diseases 

 and insect pests during life. All rusty, 

 smutty, or moldy forage is less valuable 

 for feeding than clean material of the 

 same sort and in some instances may be 

 decidedly dangerous. The rusts of ce- 

 reals and grasses are perhaps the least 

 dangerous of the many fungous diseases 

 which attack these plants, but when 

 straw is thoroughly dried the existence 

 of rust increases the amount of dust in 

 such material and, therefore, renders it 

 a less desirable feeding stuff. Smuts 

 on the other hand, may be not only very 

 disagreeable on account of the clouds of 

 dust which come from the smutty ce- 

 reals, but may also be dangerous under 

 certain circumstances. For example, 

 smutty oats, while not always harmful 

 to a pronounced extent have Occasionally 

 been known to cause death of dairy cows 

 and other animals to which they have 

 been fed in large quantities. Similarly 

 with corn smut this material while often 

 fed without any injurious effect is by 

 no means always a harmless food mate- 

 rial. Then too, silage, although an ex- 

 cellent feed for all kinds of animals 

 when given in a proper stage of fermen- 

 tation, may become exceedingly danger- 

 ous after it has undergone other kinds 

 of fermentation as a result of molds. 

 Moldiness of cereals and other feeding 

 stuffs is usually due to the presence of 

 such common fungi as species of Peni- 

 cillium, Mucor and Aspergillus. Some 

 of these have been shown by experiment 

 to be fatal to horses, cattle and sheep. 

 The fact that they are not always dan- 

 gerous should not furnish an excuse for 

 carelessly allowing forage to be affected 

 by them. 



Careless feeding responsible for many 

 ailments — Animals require a ration 

 more or less accurately compounded ac- 

 cording to their needs. When a prop- 

 erly balanced ration is not fed loss of 

 weight may occur, which, in extreme 

 instances, leads to a pronounced emaci- 

 ation, loss of appetite, and an increased 

 susceptibility to disease of all kinds. 

 Careless feeding may, therefore, be re- 

 sponsible for a considerable percentage 

 of animal disease, some of which is of 

 a serious nature. Thus, colic in horses 

 is ordinarily due to feeding excessive 

 grain rations to horses which have been 

 kept on medium rations, to feeding 



heavy rations of coarse forage immedi- 

 ately before putting the animal to hard 

 work, or to feeding spoiled material. 

 Even in mules, which are commonly con- 

 sidered less susceptible to such troubles 

 than horses, it has been found that the 

 use of large quantities of uncut hay im- 

 mediately before going to work may 

 cause a rapid development of colic. In 

 order to prevent such results, it has 

 been found desirable to cut the hay in 

 short lengths and feed it in smaller 

 quantities in the morning and to omit 

 hay from the noon ration in order to 

 prevent the overloading of the stomach. 

 Azoturia in horses is likewise caused in 

 most instances by continuing heavy 

 work rations for working horses during 

 days when they are idle. The unneces- 

 sary amount of protein obtained in these 

 rations is not used up in the body while 

 at rest, and is excreted by the kidneys 

 in large quantities, causing more or less 

 serious derangement of these organs or 

 death in a large percentage of cases. 

 In the case of heaves, roaring and vari- 

 ous other troubles of the respiratory 

 organs in horses, the predisposing cause 

 may often be the use of dusty, moldy 

 or unwholesome forage, especially in too 

 large quantities. 



Tt has long been known that certain 

 feeding stuffs may produce serious 

 trouble if fed in maximum rations at 

 once without a preliminary feeding pe- 

 riod in which the amount is gradually 

 increased. Thus cottonseed meal is 

 decidedly dangerous or fatal for pigs if 

 fed in too large quantities without re- 

 gard to the length of the feeding period. 

 Unfavorable results are also obtained 

 from this material if fed in larger rar 

 tions than 2 to 4 pounds for horses and 

 4 to 6 pounds for cattle. Alfalfa, al- 

 though fed to thousands of horses, cat- 

 tle, sheep and hogs as the exclusive 

 roughage, is not always a perfectly safe 

 feed. Bloating from alfalfa rarely oc- 

 curs when it is fed in the form of hay, 

 but as a pasture crop it may cause seri- 

 ous effects in this way upon cattle and 

 sheep but not on horses and pigs. In 

 order to avoid danger from this plant, 

 it is necessary to accustom the animals 

 slowly to pasture on alfalfa and usually 

 an immunity to bloating is acquired 

 after a preliminary period of varying 

 length. Similarly with pea hay an oc- 

 casionally bad result has been noted 

 from feeding this material in excess. 



