i9io.] 



Corn Cockle. 



41 



Care should be taken that only pure seed grain be used, 

 and cereal crops intended for seed should be thoroughly 

 cleaned of corn cockle. The weed also grows freely among 

 leguminous crops, particularly vetches, and here also the 

 pest should be hand pulled, while too great care cannot be 

 taken to prevent the seeds being harvested and distributed 

 with the seed. Owing to their size and roughness the seeds 

 are separated with difficulty from wheat or tares by means of 

 ordinary sieves. 



Poisonous Character. — We now come to a consideration 

 of the poisonous properties of corn cockle, and as live stock 

 are unlikely to eat the growing plant we may deal solely with 

 the seeds, which may be ground up with flour for human 

 consumption or with food-stuffs for farm stock. Cornevin 

 states that poisoning by corn cockle has occurred in the case 

 of man and all domestic animals. In 1874, ne says, evidence 

 in a case at Lyons showed that there were then merchants 

 sufficiently unscrupulous to add 45 per cent, of cockle flour to 

 meals intended for the feeding of stock. Cornevin could only 

 quote the amount of cockle flour necessary to cause death in 

 the case of calves, pigs, dogs, and poultry, and for these 

 animals he found the amounts to be : — 



Since Cornevin 's work appeared numerous experiments 

 have been made, and various conclusions have been drawn by 

 different authorities. 



In experiments conducted at the Vienna Experiment 

 Station,* bread containing 40 per cent, of cockle-seed meal 

 was eaten by both adults and children, but the results were 

 negative. 



In 1892 Kornauth and Arche found by feeding trials that 

 corn cockle was not poisonous to pigs, a conclusion which 

 is contrary to general belief. These investigators found f 

 that while albuminoid metabolism was diminished, fat pro- 

 duction was increased; with 70 per cent, of corn cockle in the 



Calf 

 Pig 

 Dog 

 Fowl 



* Exp. Sta. Rec, vol. iv, p. 91. 



t Ibid, , vol. iv, p. 90; vol. v, p. 228. 



