60 
J. J. HOPKINS. 
with a letter of introduction to Governor Gliek, of Kansas, and I 
was afforded every facility for a thorough examination of the 
cause and symptoms of the disease among the cattle. I visited 
many farms near Neosho Falls, and found that the cattle are fed 
on wild prairie hay, corn-fodder and straw; in some places hard, 
flinty corn, on the ear, was added to their rations, care being 
taken to have pigs run in the same lot to utilize the corn in the 
droppings of these animals. 
A SUGGESTION AS TO CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
It is a grave mistake to feed young cattle with a food that 
they are unable to masticate or digest. The corn is softened by 
maceration and absorption of the different gastric juices in the 
intestinal tract and passes from their bodies in good condition for 
easy digestion by the pig—fattening pigs at the expense of the 
calf! So the corn, instead of nourishing the calf, actually robs 
the already impoverished creature, which has to consume great 
quantities of coarse fodder to get a small amount of nutrition. 
Is it any wonder that such a creature should be unable to 
withstand the hardships of a severe winter without shelter except 
on some favored (?) farms which possess a timber lot; and old 
residents say that the past winter was the most severe during the 
last ten years. Where a great number of animals are fed in the 
same manner, and exposed to the same hardships, they are of 
necessity liable to the same disease, and when any extraordinary 
hardship is imposed on them, the weakest succumb. Again, in 
some cases we find that some animals have a predisposition to 
disease from their birth, a weak constitution, that if nursed and 
pampered in youth, might reach adult age with medium strength. 
You can now appreciate why so many of the young stock on 
the Kansas farms developed disease due to innutritious food and 
exposure to an exceedingly hard winter. The disease in Kansas 
is “ foul in the foot,” commonly called foot rot, and it is a common 
disease in all countries where like conditions exist. 
A number of scientific gentlemen investigating the cause of 
this disease, discovered in the hay some wild spurred rye, and 
concluded that the malady was due to ergot poison. 
