THE RECENT CATTLE DISEASE IN KANSAS. 
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saturated solution of sulphate of copper, while it is being turned 
over with shovels, and afterward drying it by sifting into it 
freshly burned quicklime as it is being turned over a second time. 
When the soil lias become thoroughly impregnated with ergot 
or smut, the only course to be pursued is to tear it up with the 
plow and raise a succession of root crops, potatoes, buckwheat, 
&c., which do not harbor the fungus, and which require a great 
deal of cultivation and exposure of soil to the air. 
Land that is habitually wet will be benefited by thorough 
drainage ; that which is shaded by trees will be improved by re¬ 
moving them and letting in the air and sunshine, while worn-out 
soils may have an application of fertilizers. In this way the con¬ 
ditions favoring the growth of ergot may be in a measure 
removed and the more vigorous plants will be better able to 
maintain a healthy growth. The evil, however, doubtless comes 
from a few days with cloudy, damp weather occurring at the 
period of flowering of the grass, and where the spore of the ergot 
is present, the best conditions of life which careful culture can 
secure for the plant will fail to secure immunity from the 
scourge, and the watchful stock-owner must fall back upon such 
measures of early mowing, etc., as will best secure the animals 
against the evil. It should lie added that the more vigorous the 
plant and the more quickly it passes through the susceptible stage 
of its growth the less opportunity has the fungus for taking 
possession of the flower at the critical moment. 
Finally; a liberal dietary and a vigorous animal system will 
guard somewhat against ergotism. The more liberal and varied 
the diet the more will the animal be disposed to reject such food 
as is not specially appetizing, thus diminishing the ingestion of 
the ergot and increasing that of the more wholesome diet which 
will counterbalance and counteract it. Similarly the animal 
system which is plethoric or rather bordering on plethora has a 
more active nutrition and less readily submits to any noxious con¬ 
traction of its overfilled vessels under the action of cold, ergot, 
or any chemical astringent. 
SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION. 
So much yet remains to be learned of the action of fungi on 
