THE RECENT CATTLE DISEASE IN KANSAS. 
337 
ness, with creaking of the detached horn, this horn may be pared 
off, its edges thinned in a slopping manner on to the adjacent 
heal thy horn, and the exposed secreting surface may be dressed 
with the tar and acid mixture referred to above. Sores in the 
mouth may be treated with borax or a solution of one part of 
carbolic acid in fifty parts water. 
PREVENTION OF ERGOTISM. 
The first object should be the avoidance of ergoted hay or 
smutty corn or cornstalks. Above all is this important in the 
case of cattle, which exercise so little care in the rejection of the 
faulty fodder. Experience shows that sheep and pigs will reject 
what will be greedily devoured by cattle; hence, the same hay 
which proves injurious to the latter may often be safely fed to the 
former. 
Meadows in which ergot is abundant should be cut before any 
of the grasses have run to seed. The ergot only develops in the 
ovary or pistil, and therefore it cannot even start its growth 
until the grasses come into flower. Grass or hay that has been 
cut at or before the stage of flowering is safe to feed. 
In the same manner pastures subject to ergot may be rendered 
safe by keeping them always eaten down so that none of the 
grasses can run to seed. If during a growing season any part of 
the field rejected by the stock threatens to run to seed, it should 
be at once cut down with a mower, before the seed has had time 
to form. 
The most dangerous time appears to be the period between the 
formation of the soft, milky seed and its full ripening. Fully 
ripened grasses, therefore, with an equal amount of ergot, are 
somewhat less deleterious than that which has run to seed but is 
as yet immature. Unfortunately, this is usually more than 
counterbalanced by the extra growth and abundance of the ergot 
in grasses that have ripened fully before they were cut. 
Where ergoted hay must be eaten, its evil effects may be 
largely obviated by feeding it with an abundance of succulent 
vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, beets, potatoes, pumpkins, 
apples, and the like, the excess of water as well as the relaxing 
constituents of which serving to counteract its effects. Thus 
