BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



249 



castor-oil, or sweet-oil and molasses and water wanned, to which may bo 

 added, if found necessary, after the failure to operate of the first dose, 

 half a pound of glauber salts, dissolved in warm water. During the op- 

 eration of the drench corn meal, rye, or oatmeal, mixed with a large pro- 

 portion of warm water, and a handful of common salt to every bucket 

 of it, should be freely given. The use of hay free from ergot is as ob- 

 viously indispensable. A handful of salt should be given every day to 

 promote digestion and give tone to the system. The local applications 

 must be of a stimulating nature to rouse the activity of the circulation 

 and of the absorbents, and to enable the part laboring under a defi- 

 ciency of vital energy to resume its healthy functions, or to throw off 

 the disease. Fish or beef- brine will answer as well as any, but they 

 should be well rubbed on the feet- and legs, for friction greatly tends to 

 assist in restoring the health of the parts. To prevent the appearance 

 of ergot in the grass, care should be taken, when practicable, to supply 

 the meadows with water in dry seasons. 



In the Genesee Farmer, 1857, p. 50, was published the following letter, 

 clearly referring to this disease : 



Perhaps you are aware there is a complaint among cattle occasionally, in this part 

 of the world, and it may be in many others. I have heard of it in Canada. I do not 

 know the correct name. It is not the hoof-ail, although it attacks the hind feet of 

 cattle, and, if not arrested, the limb will rot off, up to the second joint of the leg, and 

 the animal must be killed, or it will die ; after it has proceeded so far as to be incurable, 

 the only way is to knock it in the head. 



I write this to inform your numerous readers of a cure we have here, although per- 

 haps the remedy is generally known. It is to cut off the toes of the hind foot (in 

 which only it appears), about an inch horizontal, so as to open the foot sufficiently 

 there for the blood to come out ; then put the foot in a stocking with plenty of tar at 

 the toe. If taken in time this will effect a cure. It must be done early, however, 

 when the animal first shows symptoms of the complaint, by a frequent and slight 

 kicking out of the hind foot, as if pricked with something. 



I have heard the cause attributed^*) poisonous hay, such as smut. Do you or any 

 of your correspondents know anything about it ? If so, let us have your, or their, ex- 

 perience. 



CHILTON FORD. 



MOBRISTOWN; Saint Lawrence County, X. Y. 



Again, in the same periodical, 1857, p. 245, we find the following re- 

 port of this trouble in Portage County, Ohio: 



In consequence of the appearance of a severe and fatal disease among cattle in some 

 parts of Portage County (Ohio) the past winter, the Farmers' Association of Edinburg 

 appointed the undersigned a committee to investigate the subject, and ascertain if 

 possible the nature, cause, and cure of this malady. The report of this committee we 

 herewith forward for publication in the Genesee Farmer, together with a resolution 

 adopted by the association at the close of an instructive discussion upon the adoption 

 of the report. 



Report. — The disease is not caused by freezing, neither is it what is called hoof-ail, 

 foot-rot, or fouls. Its symptoms seem to be a deadness of the end of the tail, extend- 

 ing upward till in some cases the flesh separates from the bone and falls off. About 

 the same time there is a purple appearance just .at the edge of the hair, above the 

 hoof. It then commences swelling, becomes feverish, extending upward to the ankle, 

 and in some instances causing a separation of the coffin-bone from the pastern joint. 

 The lameness is confined entirely to the hind feet. The blood is pale and thin, and in 

 most cases the animal retains a good appetite till near the last. The cause we ap- 

 prehend to be feeding on hay containing ergot (a parasitic fungus growing within 

 the glumes of various grasses) in considerable quantities. We arrive at this conclu- 

 sion from the fact that the hay fed by one individual who had lost a large number of 

 cows contained much of this article, and also that the farmer from whom he purchased 

 the hay lost cattle from the same disease, and in both instances cattle fed on other 

 hay were not affected. In every well marked case of this disease it has been ascer- 

 tained that the hay on which the animals were fed contained the ergot. The hay in 

 which the ergot was found the most, was the kind called the June, or spear-grass, 

 growing in old meadows where the soil is rich and the growth rank. 



