THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 133 



Member : What are the causes for retention ? 



Dr. Peters : They are many. I may strike your hobby or I 

 may not. I do not know as I have solved the cause. Some be- 

 lieve it is due to the kind of feed that they are feeding. I have 

 known some dairymen believe if they fed balanced ration they 

 would not have it, in one locality they said it was due to the 

 ensilage ; so you see what some people believe. I just think it is 

 a certain condition that occurs. It may be that laxative feed 

 would have some influence, but I doubt it. I just think nature 

 has to take care of it. I do not believe that you can expel it by 

 feeding large portions of sugar or carbonite of soda. I do not 

 think they would influence it. It would take several days before 

 you would know the result. If they have not been removed with- 

 in six to twelve hours they should be removed. 



Member: Why do we have abortion and retention more in 

 summer than in winter under normal conditions. 



Dr. Peters : That is only a theory ; I do not attribute it to 

 the feed. 



I have taken quite a little of your time and I know you will 

 be interested in hearing the remarks of Mr. Carmer, but before I 

 take my seat I want to say a word about our laboratory which 

 my chairman just mentioned. I am sorry that we are not able 

 to furnish all of the people over the state the hog serum as fast 

 as they request it, but we had so small an appropriation that if it 

 had not been for Mr. Haner we could not have done nearly as 

 much as we have. He gave us three car loads of hogs, enough 

 for 26,000 doses. It takes a lot of money to make hog cholera 

 serum. There is no reason why Illinois should not have hog 

 serum in its borders. It is just a matter of how much money the 

 state will give us to make this serum and thus prevent hog chol- 

 era. I believe you farmers want this and you ought to get it. 



And further, I want to say we are publishing a large bulle- 

 tin which will be out March 1st on the subject of the diseases of 

 dairy cattle; you will find a useful pamphlet on the diseases of 



