OAK-LEAF POISONING OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 5 
Do not all these ideas combine to make us admit the possibility of a particular state 
of the tannin in the young tissues and the modification of this tannin in the animal 
economy? 
However this may be, the farmer should see from this and what precedes that if 
feeding with gathered leaves in the summer and in autumn raises no objection because 
it brings no inconvenient consequences, it is not the same when the collection is made 
in the beginning of spring and contains shoots and very young leaves. The better 
way will be not to subject the animals to it. 
Before closing we should say that the employment of sawdust of oak wood as a litter 
is not to be recommended. It furnishes an acid manure that can only be usefully 
employed after being corrected by phosphates. This litter is also accused of attacking 
in time the udders of milch cows and of occasioning inflammations. 
Harting, 1901, says that goats eat oak twigs without injury, but 
deer and cows are fatally poisoned. 
Mackie, 1903, published a paper on the value of oak leaves for 
forage. He gives chemical analyses of a number of species and 
discusses their comparative value as forage. His general conclusion 
is that the oaks have a fairly high nutritive value, deciduous species 
being better than the live oaks. He does not intimate that the 
leaves have any poisonous properties. 
In the Breeder's Gazette of September 1, 1909, page 362, occurs the 
following short article : 
OAK LEAP KILLS CATTLE. 
Stockmen grazing cattle in the national forests in the southwest, especially in Colo- 
rado and New Mexico, have suffered serious losses during the present summer through 
the cattle eating oak leaves. In that section of the country the season has been 
unusually dry and grass extremely scarce. To eke out the scanty forage supply the 
cattle have browsed on the scrub oak which covers large portions of the range. Ordi- 
narily the stock does not browse much on the oak and the little they do get, taken with 
the other food, is not injurious, but when, as in the present season, the oak browse 
furnishes a large proportion of the daily food of the cattle, the results are serious. 
The oak leaves and sprouts contain a large percentage of tannic acid. The action of 
this acid on the stomach is extremely injurious and the losses have been unusually 
severe. The symptoms of the disease are staring eyes, feverish and blistered lips and 
nose, the animal ceases to graze or seek for food, standing in one place for hours at a 
time. The coat becomes rough and the hair is all turned the wrong way, as in cases of 
loco poisoning. The animal does not chew its cud and in a comparatively short time 
it becomes too weak to remain on its feet and death rapidly follows. So far as is 
known the only remedy available for this trouble is linseed oil given as a drench in 
amounts from 1 to 2 quarts. The oil appears to overcome the injurious effects of the 
tannic acid, and if the disease is not advanced too far and the animal can be furnished 
sufficient food so it will not be forced to eat the oak, it will generally recover. The 
best method, of course, in handling the trouble is, if possible, to get the cattle away 
from the range where the oak is found and furnish them with plenty of fresh green feed 
to build up again. 
Lander, 1912, page 270, makes a brief statement which is evidently 
based on Cornevin. 
Barnes, 1913, pages 268 and 278, treats of the subject, making 
practically the same statements which were made earlier in the 
Breeder's Gazette. 
