342 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
ing, through which the gas escapes. In using any 
improvised tube one must hold to it or it may slip 
completely within the paunch and be lost, perhaps 
to the serious injury of the animal, though the 
writer once lost a piece of cane reed six inches long 
in the paunch of a sheep with no ill effect that he 
could ever discover, but what became of it has 
been always a mystery to him. After using the tro- 
char, one should liberally disinfect the wound with 
turpentine or some carbolic disinfectant. 
Cold Water or Ice.—In cases of bloat there is 
always considerable heat about the paunch, and 
indeed the rapid fermentation must produce an en- 
tirely unnatural heat which if it can be reduced may 
of itself cure the complaint. I learned from a Mor- 
mon ranch woman many years ago that ice heaped 
on the distended back of a bloated cow, with some 
kneading and keeping the head up hill, was a ready 
relief, This occurred when the ranch cows used to 
graze on frosted alfalfa in the fall and ice was at 
hand in the irrigating ditches. I have cured bloated 
ewes by pouring cold water on the region of the 
paunch. 
This much space has been given the subject of 
bloat, not because it is so very dangerous, but be- 
cause when one has a case of it on hand he 
is anxious to know at once what to do. The writer 
has noted that in years when he has had trouble 
from bloat on his alfalfa, his neighbors have had as 
much trouble and more loss from bloat on their red 
