8 
Colorado Experiment Station 
so called “Kansas Horse Plague” has been quite generally attributed 
to forage poisoning. 
Sporadic cases of this disease are very common in all parts of 
the United States and at all seasons of the year. 
Symptoms .—The first symptoms noticed by the casual observer 
are depression, drooping of the head, closing of the eyes, difficulty 
in swallowing, staggering gait, walking in a circle and in some cases 
pushing the head against the manger or a post. Paralysis follows 
and the animal finally goes down, and dies within a few hours, or 
in some cases may live for several days. 
Prevention .—The fact that an animal has had the disease does 
not protect it from a subsequent attack. It should be an absolute 
rule among farmers and stockmen to never feed decayed, moldy or 
spoilt food to animals. Moldy ensilage, decayed potatoes, carrots, 
sugar beets, musty hay, and moldy corn stalks are especially danger¬ 
ous. 
Prevention is difficult in those cases that occur on the open 
range or in grass pastures. The poisoning is presumably from fungi 
that develop on the grasses under certain climatic conditions. In 
these cases animals should be taken immediately from the pastures 
and fed hay that was cut the previous year or earlier in the season. 
Treatment .—Many animals that would otherwise die may be 
saved by appropriate treatment. The services of a competent veter¬ 
inarian should be sought without delay. Do not try to give any 
medicine by the mouth for the reason that the throat is paralyzed 
and the substances, especially if a fluid, will be liable to pass into 
the lungs and kill the animals. Hundreds of horses were killed in this 
way during the Kansas outbreak. 
Mildews 
There are two groups of mildews, the Downy Mildczvs and the 
Pozvdery Mildezvs. The downy mildews form a downy, white growth 
upon leaf, stem, and fruit surfaces. One of the most common downy 
mildews to be found in Colorado on cultivated plants is that growing 
on alfalfa. Many native plants are infested with these fungi. 
The powdery mildews are parasitic fungi, very common on the 
leaves of many cultivated and wild plants. The grovrth at first has 
a cobv'ebby appearance; later, the leaf becomes powdery, due to the 
production of great numbers of reproductive spores. Still later in 
the season, fruiting bodies come on the infested plant; these are in 
the form of black dots, a little smaller than a pin head. Common 
powdery mildews are those found on the gooseberry fruit, peach, 
rose, peas, wild and cultivated grasses, and other forage plants. 
Moist meadows are frequently badly troubled with a powdery mil¬ 
dew. This may be observed to form a white, mealy coating on the 
leaves. Warm, moist weather favors the development of the mil¬ 
dews. 
Poisoniny; by mildezvs .—According to Dr. Pammel in his “Man¬ 
ual of Poisonous Plants” catarrhal stomatitis (sore mouth) may be 
produced by eating fodder which has become infested with various 
