346 
JOHN M. PARKER. 
till they were three or four months, at which time, if the 
season of the year was suitable, they were turned out to pas¬ 
ture. With seven exceptions all the cases occurred between 
the time of weaning and turning out to pasture, and with 
three exceptions all the cases occurred during the summer 
months. Six cases occurred while the calf was suckling 
{morning and night); over forty while the calves were con¬ 
fined in pens and were being hand-fed, and only one after the 
calves were turned out to pasture. 
On one occasion calf after calf was attacked with scour¬ 
ing, two or three new cases occurring each day until there 
were upwards of a dozen calves sick at one time. Three had 
died, and nothing seemed to do any good until on close in¬ 
vestigation we found that great numbers of the squashes, 
which were being fed the cows, were decayed. Their use 
was discontinued, and the scouring rapidly disappeared. That 
this was the cause of the trouble was proved by the fact that 
some weeks later the foreman, wishing to use up the remain¬ 
der of the squashes to get them out of the way, fed them to 
the cows, with the result that more of the calves were at¬ 
tacked with the old trouble. 
Injudicious feeding then of cow or calf, allowing the calf 
to overgorge itself, irregular feeding, feeding milk too hot or 
too cold, all unfavorable hygienic conditions, such as hot, 
close weather, overcrowding, bad ventilation, want of sun¬ 
light, want ')f bedding, any one of these or a combination of 
them tend to produce an unhealthy condition of the calf and 
favor chronic indigestion. 
“ And this chronic dyspepsia or indigestion,” says Keat¬ 
ing, “ is more important than all other factors as a predispos 
ing cause of diarrhoeal disease.” Anything that lowers the 
vitality of the animal increases its liability to disease. On the 
other hand, “ healthy digestion and perfect absorption are the 
great obstacles to the development of new varieties of bac¬ 
teria,” for “although new varieties of bacteria are being in 
troduced all the time they fail to develop because their num¬ 
ber is small or the conditions favorable to their development 
are wanting.” 
