256 
.TAMES LAW. 
sheaf oats and corn from their arrival, December 13, up to the 
period of their attack, December 23. It is not perfectly clear, 
however, that they had no access to the suspected hay during this 
period. 
Mr. Keith himself acknowledged that “there might have been 
hay in the racks ” during this period. Major Sims, secretary of 
the State Board of Agriculture, says that at the time of his visit 
(March 1) there was still standing a stack of hay built onto the 
fence of the corral so as to practically form a portion of this fence. 
It must not be forgotten that Hindman’s cattle were taken sick 
fourteen days after they were put on the hav bought from Keith. 
Finally Mr. Keith himself testifies that three or four days after 
he received the calves he turned them into a small lot of three or 
four acres of corn stalks. Now, while we have no evidence of 
the presence of smut in this corn, nor in this sheaf oats, yet it is 
well known that this fungus ( Ustilago Maidis) has the same effect 
as ergot in inducing dry gangrene, and as the sheaf oats have 
been used up and any remnants of the corn stalks have been com¬ 
pletely stripped, negative evidence is lacking as much as positive. 
There is only the inference from common experience that such 
crops always have more or less smut, and from the proven abun¬ 
dance of ergot in the hay, implying a special potence of those 
climatic conditions which favor the growth of fungi in general, 
and those of ergot and smut in particular. This climatic influence 
is of course inoperative in the absence of the spores, but these 
being present there is the presumption of a corresponding abun¬ 
dance of smut as of ergot. Another point is that at the period 
of the outbreak the pond was low and completely frozen, and in 
place of breaking the ice Mr. Keith supplied the water by hand¬ 
pumping from a well, necessitating several hours of continuous 
work daily. It would not be surprising if, in some instances, the 
daily supply procured by this means should have been slightly 
defective. 
2d. Mr. Beard fed his stock on hay very full of ergot, but 
which had been bought from Mr. Biddison, and the cattle of the 
latter, fed on the same hay, were not noticed to suffer. A fact 
of this kind cannot, however, negative the causative action of the 
