PARASITES— ERGOT. 19 



flower-heads of grasses showing ergot spurs — thus 

 stimulating the boys and unemployed persons of the 

 locality to search for same. A few shillings spent in 

 that way might save many pounds ; and if a sufficient 

 quantity of the spurs could be collected, there might 

 be a market for them in the drug trade. Tall Meadow 

 Fescue grass seems to be particularly liable to attack 

 of ergot, and on that account should not be allowed to 

 go to seed. 



As in the majority of cases it would not be worth 

 while coUecting the ergots, the next best course to 

 pursue is to cut and collect the ergotted grasses and 

 burn them; taking care that they are shaken and 

 tossed about as little as possible, as the grains of 

 ergot have only a slight hold on the seed stalk, there- 

 fore are easily detached, and if allowed to drop off 

 and remain on land each grain will serve as a centre 

 for the propagation of the pest at a future time. 



A writer in a recent number of the Agricultural 

 Gazette reports that he has found the disease this year 

 on almost every grass on his farm. Also that his 

 hay and silage was ergotted last year, and that of a 

 herd of forty-five cows, half of thena had dead calves. 

 This writer suggests that experiments should be made 

 with ergot on in-calf cows, with the view of getting 

 answers to the following questions, viz.. How much 

 ergot is required to produce abortion ? Is the effect 

 of ergot greater or less as the time of pregnancy 

 advances ? Does ergot affect a cow when giyen on a 

 full stomach ? Does it act immediately on the cow, 

 or must she consume it for a length of time to make 

 her abort ? This is a subject on which further in- 

 vestigation is very urgently required. 



