BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



223 



more grasses ergotized to an extreme degree. At Keith's, Beard's, and 

 Pribbemow's, in Kausas, there was a large proportion of wild rye (Ely- 

 mus virginicus. variety submuticus) which contained an extraordinary 

 quantity of ergot. In many heads half the grains and in other heads 

 every grain had been replaced by the fungus. Careful weighings of 

 heads brought to Washington, and from which some of the ergot had 

 been lost in transit, gave in one case 12 per cent., and in another 

 case 10 per cent., as the proportion of ergot. ISTow, if the head repre- 

 sented one-half the weight of the entire plant, from 5 to G per cent, of 

 the weight of the rye must have been ergot; and if one-fifth of the 

 weight of the hay was made up of wild rye, then a 20-pound ration of 

 hay would contain about 4 ounces of ergot. 



As is always the case where an attempt is made to account for results 

 when the conditions affecting these have not been intelligently observed 

 and carefully recorded at the time, we found some apparent discrepan- 

 cies in the ergot theory. The greater part of these have been explained 

 in a remarkably satisfactory manner, and if we could know every cir- 

 cumstance connected with the feeding and care of the animals for thirty 

 or forty days preceding their illness, doubtless the most critical could 

 be satisfied as to the cause of the disease in every subject. As we are 

 compelled, however, to rely upon the more or less defective memories 

 of the owners of the cattle, who, of course, did not make their observa- 

 tions in the light of subsequent developments, we must accept the 

 situation as we rind it and consider ourselves fortunate if a connection 

 can be traced between cause and effect in the greater part of the cases. 

 An exact estimate could not be made of the quantity of ergot in a given 

 quantity of the hay in Kansas, but the weight of ergot in the heads of 

 wild rye indicated this very closely. The head shown in Plate VII, Fig- 

 ure 3, is a good representation of this plant as it existed in the hay. 



In Missouri the hay was made up mostly of red top (Agrostis vulgaris), 

 but also contained some blue grass and timothy. The red top and 

 blue grass contained a very large proportion of ergoted grains, and an 

 occasional head of timothy was also affected. Figures 1, 2, and 4, Plate 

 VII, are drawings from specimens of these grasses taken from the hay- 

 racks at which the diseased cattle were eating. 



In Illinois the hay was almost entirely composed of red top, and this 

 contained a relatively large amount of ergot. Careful weighings of 

 specimens of this hay and the ergot which it contained, from two of the 

 worst affected farms, demonstrate that every 75 pounds of hay contains 

 1 pound of ergot; or, in other words, an animal eating 20 pounds daily 

 of this hay consumed 4.2 ounces of ergot. Doubtless this quantity 

 might be taken daily for a considerable time without producing appre- 

 ciable effects under some conditions, but when the circulation in the 

 extremities is diminished by extremely cold weather, aud when in ad- 

 dition to this the water supply is limited then ergot in this dose, con- 

 tinued day after day, becomes very dangerous. 



In Kansas I examined the hay on adjoining farms where no disease had 

 appeared, and I found a very much smaller proportion of ergot. At the 

 Dibble farm, which joins Keith's, one .might examine a dozen heads of 

 rye without finding a grain of ergot, and the same was true of hay found 

 in the town of Neosho Falls. In Illinois, at two farms, I saw hay of the 

 crop of 1882 and also that of 1883, and while the former contained some 

 ergot the latter contained a greatly increased proportion. It had been 

 noticed by the people here that the red-top hay of the crop of 1883, for 

 some unexplained reason, was greatly inferior ; that animals neither 

 relished it nor thrived when fed upon it, and it sold for 83 a ton when 



