608 
NEWS AND ITEMS. 
weeks and during the last week the losses have not only .in¬ 
creased in the infected districts, but the disease is becoming 
general throughout the Ohio Valley.” The West is very little 
better. Scarcely a State fair grouud escaped an outbreak this 
fall. The visitation is particularly severe on farmers at this 
time when corn is so abundant and feeding cattle so scarce and 
high priced. In the face of such widespread devastation it 
ought not to be necessary to repeat the warning that every pur¬ 
chased pig should be quarantined on some out-of-the-way corner 
of the farm until danger of. the disease developing has passed. 
Such precaution is the part of common prudence.— Breeders’ 
Gazette , Oct. 14. 
Crimson Clover Hair Balls in Horses. —The division 
of botany of the United States Department of Agriculture has re¬ 
cently investigated the cause of death of horses that have been 
allowed to feed on overripe crimson clover (Trifolium incar - 
iiatum ), a species of clover recently introduced from Europe. 
The calyx of this clover is densely beset with stiff hairs, which 
at maturity become thick-walled, and doubtless, though not so 
stated by the department, the cellulose, constituting the young 
cell of which the hair is composed, is transformed into lignin, 
or some other substance indigestible for the horse. The surface 
of the hair is marked by sharp-pointed tubercles bent toward the 
apex. Taken into the stomach of the horse, these hairs form 
themselves into masses of a spherical shape. They are arranged 
with their bases toward the centre of the ball, this position being 
facilitated by the tubercles pointing toward the apex of the hair. 
When the balls reach a certain size, apparently in from a few 
days to several weeks, they pass into the intestines, where they 
form obstructions, causing intense suffering and death in a few 
hours following the appearance of the first symptoms. No bad 
effects are observed when the clover is eaten before the seed ma¬ 
tures. The fatal effects have mainly occurred when the plants 
were allowed to fully ripen and the straw and refuse, after 
threshing, had been fed to the horses .—Pittsburg Medical 
Review. 
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