36 Injurious Fodder and Poisonous Plants. 
observers, namely, not to use potatoes or roots which show 
signs of decay at all ; but it will be obvious to every farmer 
that decayed potatoes possess little feeding value. For what 
is the food in roots and potatoes that is taken by the animal 
organism ? Is it not the stored food in these itself ? Now 
it is well known that fungi live upon the stored food, and 
thus the decay results. Such roots or tubers used as food 
load the stomach with a lot of unnecessary material which 
has practically been already “ digested ” and passes through 
the animal’s body without any benefit, to say nothing of the 
possible disturbances such food has actually caused. Roots 
or potatoes should therefore only be given to animals when 
perfectly sound or after the diseased portions have been cut 
away. 
In comparison with the enormous number of fungi causing 
plant diseases, the cases referred to above certainly appear very 
few ; but while the majority of them have hitherto not been 
mentioned as having produced any ill effects on animals, it must 
be clearly understood that every fungus alike renders the 
plants attacked by it less nutritious, on account of their parasitic 
mode of life. The non-parasitic fungi, moulds, like Asper- 
gillus, Mucor, Penicillium, &c., also give cause for suspicion. 
Food which contains even a small proportion of moisture will 
quickly become mouldy, especially if it is kept some time. 
The musty smell of mouldy food makes it disagreeable and 
it is rejected by stock. Win. Housman* attributes premature 
calving to the results of inferior food and of mouldy hay in 
particular. Other writers refer diseases of the intestines, 
constipation, decrease of the yield of milk to the presence of 
mould fungi in the food. 
Alarming as the foregoing notes may appear, the injuries 
caused by the presence of microscopic fungi in the food of 
animals principally depend, in the writer’s opinion, upon the 
quantity in which they occur and upon the condition of the 
feeding animal itself. Old animals possess and make use of 
their natural instinct and thus fall less victims to injury, but 
younger animals through lack of intelligence suffer more often. 
On well-managed farms injuries due to inferior food should 
never happen, as with very little care they may be prevented. 
The following points are of practical importance : (1) clean 
and healthy food ; (2) cleanliness of the stables, especially of 
the manger, where remnants of moist food are often carelessly 
left, and which decay and contaminate the food given later ; 
and (3) light and fresh air, the best protectors from mould 
and decay. 
* Journal R.A.S.E., 1880, page 395. 
