The formula for hog cholera which was published by the Bureau of Animal Industry in Farmers' Bulletin No. 24 "has proved as efficacious as any we have heard of the past season," but the author himself recommends no medicinal treatment.

NECESSITY OF COARSE FEED TO GROW CATTLE.

[Eugene Davenport, M. Agr., Bulletin No. 46, Illinois Experiment Station.]

Four experiments were conducted with calves, all begun immediately after birth, in order to obtain, to some degree at least, an answer to the query, To what extent is it necessary to cater to the instinct and the appetite of the animal in the matter of nutrition? The plan in each experiment was to attempt to raise the calf to maturity with all conditions normal or the most favorable, except that it was deprived of all coarse feed. The feed given was ample in abundance and in variety. While at first it was not expected that much would be learned by the trials, the results pointed surely and accurately toward the principle that we can not offend with impunity the constitutional need for coarse feed.

The first experiment was upon a grade Shorthorn calf. Upon the first indication of a desire for coarse feed its bedding was removed and shavings substituted. Grain was fed early, but a phenomenal appetite was developed for bulky food. Its appetite was such that, if allowed, it would freely eat the shavings, bits of rope, etc. Although up to this time it appeared healthy, it consumed inordinate quantities of ground feed, composed of half corn and half oats, and at five months of age it consumed more than a half bushel daily. Dirt was eaten freely if obtainable. The expectation that these peculiarities would disappear and that the calf would become accustomed to its food was not realized. We quote:

At about four months the joints commenced to swell and the legs to stiffen. Later, by spells, the calf walked with a reeling motion, although at other times he played as would any other calf. One of the most peculiar facts noticeable was the body conditions as to flesh. It was poor, but not thin. Its muscles remained plump and exceedingly firm, not to say solid, to the touch.

At about five months there was an evident disturbance of the nerve centers, and, although the calf never missed a meal or suffered from disturbed digestion, it was evident that it could not long survive. It was at this time taking over a half bushel of grain daily with evident relish. It was now killed, and a postmortem examination revealed nothing peculiar in the development of the internal organs. A great quantity of food was found in the stomachs, but there was no sign of inflammation or of internal disturbance of any kind. The one noteworthy feature of the carcass was the absolute lack of fat, either external or internal. This, together with the plumpness of the muscles, left the outlines of each clearly defined and not obscured, as is the case in normal specimens, in which the connective tissue, even in thin animals, carries considerable fat.

The second experiment was upon the offspring of a Holstein-Friesian cow and Jersey bull. This calf was put upon a diet of skim milk, and by August 1 had consumed 950 pounds, or 25 pounds a day.

The following table shows the progress of the experiment to January 11, when it refused milk:

Table showing amount of milk consumed, weight of calf, and amount of gain.

At the end of October there was a pronounced stiffness in the joints. At the end of November the stiffness had increased, accompanied by lessened activity and appetite. At the end of December the calf was in a bad condition-very stiff, disinclined to move, and indifferent as to whether it ate or not. The first ten days of January showed a phenomenal gain in weight, but a violent reaction set in on the 11th. The calf refused to stand and to take milk, and seemed nearly dead. "At 8 a. m. hay and straw were put before it and it ate greedily, evincing no choice between the two, and at 11 a. m., three hours after taking coarse food, it was ruminating for the first time in its life, and exhibited a brightened eye and a most contented expression of countenance. Before night it was standing up and moving about. Drank 6 pounds of milk." Hay and milk were given each day thereafter, and occasionally some other food, such as oats, oil meal, or silage, and the calf rapidly improved in condition and gained in weight. The experiment closed on March 31, when Director Davenport said the calf "was in every respect well, hearty, and growing, and as able and as disposed to be active as was any calf in the barn."

The third experiment was upon a grade Jersey, dropped May 1. The progress of the experiment was essentially the same as that of the one first above, except that its condition was not permitted to become so severe. The calf was first reported as "not doing well" the last week in September, and in the second week of October was given some hay. Hay and grain, as well as milk, were given daily thereafter till October 12, when the experiment closed, and when it was noted "calf greatly improved.”

Experiment No. 4 was upon a grade Jersey which, on June 3, was 2 weeks old and taking 20 pounds of milk daily. It was designed in

this case to wean the calf and put it upon an exclusive diet of grain. The following table shows the progress:

Progress of experiment with a calf upon an exclusive diet of grain.

On September 5 and 6 the calf, having refused water for two weeks, was given a little milk, but on September 8 refused all food. Next day drank 8 pounds of milk, but was bloated badly. "It weighed now 167 pounds, and had apparently gained 24 pounds since August 20, when it refused water, and since which time it had drunk but 19 pounds. It weighed 47 pounds more than on September 3, when it refused all food and drink, and since which time it had consumed but 3 pounds of oats and 19 pounds of milk, not counting the few swallows recorded as 'a little.' The query is as to the source of this gain, and it would be most readily chargeable to error were it not that a like increase had been noted in both No. 2 and No. 3 at a similar stage in the experiment.'

From this time until September 16 its appetite increased, and it seemed to rally without hay, but on this day, almost without warning, it died. This was the only one of the calves to show signs of a disturbed digestion.

The discussion of the data upon these experiments by Director Davenport is interesting, and is embodied herewith in full:

A close study of these animals, their feed, gains, and attendant symptoms, discloses certain peculiar and not a few abnormal and puzzling facts.

Rumination.-From the first it had been a query whether anything like normal rumination would follow the consumption of coarse grains like bran or oats in the absence of coarser food, but the closest observation failed to discover it until hay or straw was taken. No. 2 was contentedly chewing his cud for the first time at 7 months of age, three hours after his first meal of hay. With No. 3 it was not until five and one-half hours after the first meal of hay that rumination was noticed, and Nos. 1 and 4 never ruminated.

Absence of fat and character of flesh.-The total absence of fat, either internal or external, as revealed on post-mortem examination, particularly after the enormous amounts of food consumed, is unaccountable. No. 1 at 6 months of age was taking about one-half bushel of mixed grain per day, yet no fat was to be found even about the kidneys. But the muscles were not shrunken; on the contrary, they were plump and exceedingly dense. The animals would all attract instant attention. At a glance they looked poor, yet they were not thin like those that have suffered from insufficient food. Upon touching with the hand it would be noted instantly that the muscles were exceedingly hard, and that the general appearance of the animals is approached by those only that have been long on dry pasture with insufficient water.

Enormous consumption of food.-These experiments serve an important purpose in showing that the amount of food that is consumed is no indication of its economic use, and that enormous amounts may be taken in the vain attempts to satisfy an abnormal appetite. These animals were wanting something that they could not get, and, with the appetite of the first stages of dyspepsia, ate everything in sight. This is one of the symptoms of insufficient nutrition, which is but another name for the early stages of starvation, and is a condition of things that the careless feeder often brings upon his stock by poor care or insufficient food in early winter. That the rally, if made at all, will be made at great expense of food is more clearly shown in these experiments than by data heretofore possessed. No. 1 ate at 6 months of age a half bushel of mixed grain per day. At 2 months of age No. 2 ate 40 pounds of milk daily, and rose to over 50 pounds at 4 months, which proved inadequate to its wants. After being allowed hay, the same calf made gains amounting to from 2 to 3 pounds a day on a ration of from 2 to 3 pounds of hay, 24 to 3 pounds of grain, and 30 to 35 pounds of milk. No. 3 went to pieces at between 4 and 5 months, after consuming an average of 714 pounds of milk daily for five weeks. This is 35 quarts per day, and it seems almost inconceivable that a Jersey calf, at less than 4 months, could consume so much.

Nondisturbance of digestion.-It would seem that such inordinate amounts of food must destroy a calf or at least lead to complicated disturbances within the machinery of digestion. In none but the last (No. 4) was any disorder of the kind noted. The bowels remained regular throughout and the droppings appeared normal. It raises a query as to the extent to which digestion was really accomplished and whether failure was primarily in the digestive apparatus or in the metabolic processes of the body.

Gains. Some of the gains secured are worth noting. No. 2 in the first one hundred days gained 138 pounds on 3,380 pounds of skimmed milk, or 1 pound of gain for 25 pounds of milk. The same calf increased from 107 pounds to 333 pounds at seven months, a gain of 226 pounds, on an exclusive diet of skimmed milk. But the limit was reached and gains as high as 3 pounds per day were made later on a moderate feed of hay, grain, and milk. No. 3 gained less on his diet of milk, and in ninety days gained 108 pounds on 4,739 pounds of milk, or 1 pound of gain for 43 of milk. No. 3, although much smaller than No. 2, ate more milk, as will be seen, and put on less gain.

Sudden apparent heavy gains.-It will be remembered that No. 2 appeared to have gained 36 pounds in the eleven days just before its collapse; that No. 3 apparently gained 48 pounds in the seven days from September 2 to 9, and went "off" immediately after, and that No 4, September 9, weighed 47 pounds more than it did six days before, although it could not have consumed in the meantime more than that amount of food. Some allowance must be made for the inaccuracy of gains computed from a difference in consecutive weights, and an error in weights is always possible; but the substantial agreement, in all cases, in a sudden and extreme increase of weight just before a collapse is, to say the least, surprising and difficult of explanation, especially in the case of No. 4, in which the material

appears to be wanting. The difficulty is not lessened by the fact that this occurred once, and once only, with each calf.

Uniformity of symptoms.-All agreed substantially in the essential symptoms resulting from deprivation of coarse food, namely, a ravenous appetite, followed by enlargement and stiffening of joints, spells of dizziness and difficult locomotion, all followed by periods of relief, and finally by a settled feeling of indifference to food. This indifference could be removed temporarily by any change of food, but permanently by coarse food only, which never failed to effect a restoration to normal conditions.

Starvation.-These experiments, considered in connection with common observation and experience, seem to teach that whether food be insufficient in quantity or imperfectly adapted in quality to the needs of the animal, the result is the same-defective nutrition, which is in no sense different from starvation.

It may be argued that depriving milk of its fat violated a law of nature. The teaching has been, however, that the casein would be a full equivalent if in sufficient quantity, and the fact is clear that all these calves that were put on a diet of skimmed milk flourished remarkably well till at the age of four or five months. However that may be, they all failed to sustain the demands of life on any diet until a ration of hay or straw was added, and then, as in the case of Nos. 2 and 3, made a rapid recovery. Further, from the first the attendant symptoms were those characteristic of slow starvation, namely, a ravenous appetite, soon giving place to a disturbance of the nerve centers, and later an entire indifference to food and a total loss of appetite.

As starvation in mature animals is accompanied by a wasting of the tissues, especially fat, so here starvation by imperfect nutrition during development resulted in the total absence of fat.

As bearing upon the more general principles of physiological requirements and body behavior, it may be said that these calves have exhibited phenomena notably similar to those of ill-fed children, as they have been studied by the writer in the tropics and observed to some extent in certain quarters of great cities. In hot countries a very little food will sustain life in a mature body, but the demands of growing children are more exacting, and they may be seen by hundreds tucked away in obscure corners, with face in hands, exhibiting that characteristic expression that may be called the starved look and that is easily detected in human being or in animal wherever present.

There is a popular belief that starvation in all its stages is an acute and painful condition incident only upon insufficient amounts of food. There could be no greater error. The acute stage soon passes and there is only a nameless and dull yearning left till life is extinct. These experiments appear to teach that starvation, partial or complete, inay ensue upon an apparently slight interference with constitutional habit.