Injurious Fodder. 
33 
deteriorated when heavy rain has saturated it,i but still more 
when the meadows from which the hay is obtained have 
become flooded. Whilst the former washes out especially those 
valuable ingredients which are of a light digestible nature, the 
latter spoils the hay by the particles of soil or mud adhering to 
it. It has been recorded that this kind of hay causes trouble in 
the digestive organs, the mud particles with the hay forming 
hard balls in the stomach of the animals ; thus producing 
symptoms of obstruction or other considerable damage. If 
0 hay of this description has to be used it should be thoroughly 
dried and the quantity necessary be put in a sack and beaten ; 
much of the dried mud would thus be removed. It is still 
better to put it through a cutting machine and mix it with 
molasses or other artificial feeding-stuffs. • 
In the same way as a farmer would not think of giving his 
animals water to drink too cold or too hot, he should avoid 
giving frozen, roots as food. In many cases this has proved 
itself a serious mistake. Low temperatures causing catarrh of 
the stomach, “ blowing,” diarrhoea, and in cows abortion. 
Another important factor which renders food noxious is 
the presence of microscopic vegetable organisms, as for instance 
the parasitic fungi attacking plants or the non-parasitic fungi, 
commonly known as “ moulds.” 
Amongst the parasitic group the ergot fungus on grasses 
takes the first place. This fungus formed the subject of an 
interesting memoir by Mr. Carruthers,** and its detailed 
description can be dispensed with here. A passage in that 
paper emphasises the remarkable action of ergot on the gravid 
uterus, which has caused it to be used for many years as a 
powerful aid in cases of difiicult or prolonged parturition, 
and elsewhere he refers to ergot as the cause of abortion. ^ 
Numerous instances of the same trouble could be mentioned. 
Mr. Batho, writing in one of the earlier volumes of this 
Society’s Journal,* * says that he cannot give an exact reason why 
great losses have occurred from abortion, but it is probably 
due to the grasses of the meadow being affected by ergot. A 
drastic case of poisoning by ergot is known to me where a 
horse had been feeding on infested hay of ryegrass. On the 
* Much too little attention is paid to this matter. Hay, especially in wet 
seasons like the present, is very much inferior. Since this article was written 
a case came to my notice where damp hay, of this year’s harvest, was given to 
16 horses, and all lost their appetite, their usual brightness, and the general 
condition was much impaired. Soon after changing the hay for better, the 
animals rapidly regained their old strength and soon recovered their natural 
brightness. — (JN'or., 1907, H.T.G.') 
’ Journal R.A.S.E., 1874, page 443. 
* lUd., 1886, page 327. 
* Ibid., 1884, page 629. 
D 
