556 
M. R. TRUMBOWER. 
few cases were described to me as having shown colicky symp¬ 
toms after three or four days, with slimy passages from the 
bowels. Only in a few cases were there any anasarcous swell¬ 
ing about the limbs or abdomen. I think 1 am safe in stating 
that two-thirds of the animals that died failed to manifest any 
acute suffering at any period of the disease, or manifested 
any plain evidence of acute disease of any one or more or¬ 
gans. In animals where the disease remained confined to the 
skin about the mouth and nose, relief was almost immediately 
obtained by using some bland ointment on the sores. 
Under such simple treatment as that they readily healed 
up, but they would recur very soon after the treatment was 
abandoned, unless at the same time a change of feed was in¬ 
troduced. I think I have succeeded in tracing it to the feed 
that these animals obtained, or something ingested in conhec- 
tion with it. The drought in that section of the country was 
extreme last fall. The hay crop was an entire failure. The 
farmers were compelled to winter their horses on corn fodder, 
straw, and cut oats. The oat crop was very light, yielding 
from 5 to 15 bushels to the acre; the straw was light and im¬ 
mature. The corn fodder, to a very large extent, was cut 
and gathered in bundles, and fed to the horses in the stables 
after the corn was husked out. The wheat crop was very 
good, and all the farmers had plenty of wheat-straw for feed, 
which was invariably stacked out doors as it came from the 
machine. In the fall, soon after oat harvest, after the pastures 
gave out entirely, most of the farmers commenced to cut 
sheaf oats, feeding about a half bushel of these oats, “ hexel” 
as they called it, once or twice a day. Three bundles of 
these oats cut up, would make a bushel, so the feeding quali¬ 
ties of this amount were very meagre. About the holidays 
four-fifths of the farmers had fed up all their oats, or “ hexel,” 
and were compelled to turn their horses to wheat-straw 
stacks and corn fodder. Now all the farmers with whom I 
talked that had fed mixed feed, bran, oil cake meal, or ground 
corn mixed with their “ hexel,” or mixed with cut wheat-straw, 
suffered no loss from this disease, although many of their 
horses became mildly affected ; while the farmers who relied 
