Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

368 CATTLE.
most of the neighboring ones being annoyed by it, and especially if
the soil and the productions of the soil are similar ; and even cattle
in the straw-yard have not then quite escaped. It is more prevalent
in the spring and autumn than in the -winter, and more in the winter
than in the summer : it is particularly prevalent when, in either the
spring or the fall of the year, warm days succeed to cold nights and
a heavy dew. It is peculiar to certain pastures : the farmer scarcely
dares to turn even the cattle of the country upon some of them ;
and
a beast brought from a distant farm or market is sure to be attacked.
It oftenest occurs in woody districts, and particularly in low marshy
lands ; but in them there are exceptions, which, in the present state
of the botanical knowledge of the farmer and the veterinarian, cannot
be satisfactorily accounted for, A wall or a hedge may divide a
perfectly safe pasture from another which gives the red-water to
every beast that is turned upon it. One farmer scarcely knows what
the disease is except by name, while on the grounds of his neighbor
it destroys many a beast every year. The same pasture is safe at
one time of the year and dangerous and destructive at another. The
fields surrounded by copses may be stocked with impunity, or advantage,
in summer or winter ; but the farmer must beware of them
when the buds are shooting or the leaves are falling.
The result of general experience is, that it has more to do with
the nature of the food than with any other cause ; and the. produc-
tion or the unusual growth of the astringent and acrimonious plants
may have considerable influence here. The malady may with more
probability be traced to the quality of the general produce of the soil,
than to the prevalence of certain plants of known acrimonious or
poisonous properties.
This noxious quality may be communicated by excess or depriva-
tion of moisture. There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious
effect of the coarse rank herbage of low, and marshy, and woody
countries, and he regards such districts as the chosen residence of
red-water.
The farmer must carefully observe the effect of the different parts
of his farm in the production of this disease ; and observation and
thought may suggest to him that alteration of draining or manuring,
or other management, which may to a considerable degree remedy
the evil.
Acute Red-water is ushered in by a discharge of bloody urine,
and is generally preceded by dysentery, suddenly changing to obstinate
costiveness ; and as soon as the costiveness is established the red-water
appears. There is laborious breathing, coldness of the»extrernities,
ears and horns, heat of the mouth, tenderness of the loins, and every
indication of fever : it often runs its course with fearful rapidity, and
the animal is sometimes destroyed in a very few days.
When th.? carcass is examined,' there is generally found some in-