10 



MISC. PUBLICATION 3 6 9, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



certain pastures, few careful descriptions of abnormal soils have been 

 made. Faville (173) in 1896, a report of the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 for 1898 {571), and Parker (449) in 1904 refer to possible environ- 

 mental conditions as being important in the occurrence of nutritional 

 diseases. In 1920 Cary (111) described a deficiency disease in south- 

 ern Alabama along the Coastal Plain region, sometimes called the 

 wire grass region. The terms "sweeny" or "creeping sickness" were 

 applied to the disease, which Cary states was actually osteomalacia. 

 The soil was described as being sandy and deficient in lime. Schmidt 

 (512) in 1924 investigated a fatal disease of cattle in Texas known as 

 "loin disease" or "down-in-the-back." He observed that the occur- 

 rence of the disease was "limited to the low, flat area bordering on the 

 Gulf of Mexico and extending inland to the north to a distance of 

 about 100 miles. The soil is usually noncalcareous." Becker (52) in 

 1933 stated in connection with his investigation of "bone chewing" 

 in Florida that the deficient areas were associated with certain of the 

 "clay soils of the lower Appalachian Mountain regions, soils of the 

 flatlands more distant from the flood plains of rivers that drain more 

 fertile fields, and the muck and lighter sandy soils of the coastal 

 plains." 



Welch (582) in 1924, in his report on bone chewing in Montana, 

 stated that throughout large areas in Montana, cattle showed symp- 

 toms of a deficiency disease. The occurrence of the disease was usually 

 associated with the feeding of wild hay and usually that grown on low 

 ground. As a rule the hay contained redtop, wire grass, bluejoint, 

 and various swamp grasses. Cattle that were fed alfalfa, clover, or 

 other legumes were not often observed to chew bones, even though 

 legume forage may have been used for only a part of the year. Al- 

 though the disease had been observed since 1910, it did not become 

 acute until the better lands were taken over for farming and the 

 poorer lands only were reserved for grazing. 



Scott (516) in 1929 examined the forage in several localities in 

 Montana where depraved appetite of cows had been observed. The 

 data on grasses from normal and deficient areas indicate that the 

 cattle must obtain in any of the areas studied in Montana a forage 

 relatively low in phosphorus and that there is little difference in the 

 composition of forage from "good" or "poor" lands. The data in 

 table 5 illustrate the point. 



Table 5. — Calcium and phosphorus content of forage crops in Montana 



[Scott (516)] 





Year 

 sampled 



Description of area 



Number 

 of anal- 

 yses ' 



Analysis of dry 

 matter 





Ca 



P 



Alfalfa 



1925 

 2 1927 

 1926 

 1926 

 1927 

 1925 

 1927 

 1926 

 1927 



Normal.. 



11 

 9 

 6 

 3 

 1 

 3 

 2 

 1 

 1 

 9 



14 



Percent 

 1.44 

 1.54 

 2.32 

 2.02 

 1.49 

 1.05 

 1.23 

 1.82 

 1.46 

 2.44 

 2.94 



Percent 

 0.181 



Do 



do 



.164 



Do 



Deficient ... 



.161 



Do 



. do 



do 



.160 



Do 



.141 





Normal. .. 



.170 



Do 



. do 



.123 



Do 



Deficient.. . . .. ._. ... 



.147 



Do 



...do 



.139 





Normal 



.157 



Do 





Deficient 



.113 



1 Maximum and minimum values are not given by the author. 



2 The season of 1927 was wet. No information available for other years. 



