Show RO A D C aff f 8 caan ONE CHEWING Is a frequent cause of death among ranch cattle which also chew the shed antlers of mule deer the bones usually become firm ly fixed in the teeth of the lower jaw and the poor brutes wander about until they die of starvation the late henry evans who made search tor for dead deer during his long lease of jura forest found bone chewing to be a not uncommon cause of death but the victims were mostly stags and his own comment was probably as in the human species females are more dexterous than males fortunately numbers of cattle are relieved in time and my neighbor lund saved from death a famished cow which had mistaken a piece of tough cottonwood root for a bone it was wedged transversely in her mouth against the jawbone on one side but firmly embedded in the cheek flesh of the other and was removed with dim culty after the animal had been roped and thrown I 1 think however that accidents of any kind arising from the bone chewing habit cheth er to deer or cattle are transcended by the re aly V YS 4 y k 9 1 ife k 0 1 az z ga 7 appetite for reels rock displayed by some of the cattle on a well known montana ranch this rock swall swallowing propensity which Is operative only in winter Is a al MOB most t invariably fatal and but lery I 1 ery few cases have recovered either al ea A naturally or when medicinally Y treated the phenomenon was first 01 A observed on march 4 1903 when t the senior of two brothers arch av dale had ridden out to look over at wo his herd to his consternation he found the bodies of fifteen steers which had died in some mysterious manner nine in one place and six in another at first sight the cat tie tle appeared to be resting easily upon their chosen bed ground and as there was vas no indication either of or a struggle death was presumed to have been nain pain less an autopsy revealed that the en contained about a pint of fragments of red rock varying in size from a pigeon pigeons s e eg 9 to a pea and in the second stomach was a less amount of the same mineral the mucous membrane of the paunch was so seier severely ely burnt that it would peel off at the touch this brick like rock called by geologists Is composed of silicate of aluminium and iron oxide which latter gives it the red color archdale who has had a lifelong experience with cattle had never seen a similar case but rightly attributed poisonous qualities to the rock and immediately sent away samples to various chemists some of the replies were to the effect that no poison could be detected others stated that potassium nitrate was present but not in sufficient quantities to cause the disautel dis astel it remained tor for mr V K chesnut the eminent chemist of the bozeman agricultural experiment station to clear up the mystery after he had examined numerous samples of roe rock in a conclusive letter to mr archdale he po anted out that the animals vere a poisoned by an efflorescence which exuded from the porous rocks containing nitric and sulphuric acid sak of sodium and potassium in other words crude saltpetre salt petre the quantity varied of course with different rent samples which would explain some of the favorable verdicts returned the report went on to state two ounces Is sometimes sufficient to kill a horse and from tour our to eight ounces are nearly always fatal to hores and cows no doubt remained as to the correctness of mr Ches chesnut nuts s diagnosis as ohp th chemist chemists s description of all the symptoms and postmortem post mortem appearances exactly coincided the careful observations made by mr air archdale the latter was still further convinced by the following statement the whole course of the sickness sometimes covers only a few hours and in a few cases death has been observed to follow within five minutes after taking the salt 1 hanks to the skillful diagnosis of the bozeman chemist the cause of the fatalities has now been decisively ascertained but the question still remains as to how these losses are to be prevented in future the cattle in question which are chiefly hereford with the remainder a cross between here ford and shorthorn either roam over free prairie or are confined in a 5 acre pasture the country consisting of wide parks bisected with creeks and enclosed by steep ranges of pine clad scoria topped hills these scoria crags are of several different colors many are red others yellow or green some even mauve in fact almost any hue may be seen the fragments of white encrusted red rock lie scattered upon the sides of the hills or around their bases in parts of the bad lands where has disintegrated a maroon powder is formed which may be collected with a spoon s spoon and was formerly used by the in as war paint it Is heartrending to ride among these hills off death and come suddenly upon a trembling eighty dollar steer which after reeling to and fro succumbs in fn an apoplectic fit or to see a favorite heifer vainly struggling tor for life as described to me in lit by archdale as follows 1 I 1 gaw saw her come from one of the rocky hills and take a drink of water she commence to shake and wobble about growing gradually weaker and when it seemed that all her strength had left her she lay down I 1 rode away and re turned to her in about halt half an hour the heifer was then upon her feet trying to walk but only we went n t about fifty yards when after another attack of the staggers she lay down again and died the ahe cattle have had lit the salt they could eat for six weeks prior to the death of this heifer and they would walk away from the salt to pick up a bit of this rock to chew what Is it that gives them such a craving for lt it r while the loss in these cattle from the efflorescence Is inconsiderable when compared to that sustained from blizzards or wolves varying from about three per cent in one year to nil nii the whole period ot of tight eight years sine sincy its comme commencement there can be no question that the rock swallowing tendency la Is very remarkable and tp ay S me it Is iq inexplicable except on the irbe ground of a depraved heredi hereditary tarr 11 4 petite in certain members of bf the herd her P it cannot be due dud to the jack lack of alij salti sines the owners are accustomed to td haul this out fn n ISO pound barrels and wid round up the cattle to it as alluded to pa in the letter already quoted rather X may it be compared with the strange 4 xa propensity of certain horses to eat hens eggs a case of which was recently brought to my notice As just ly observed by mr air chesnut the mat ter is of all the more inter interest est because new to the country and I 1 can myself X assert after r twenty two years resi rest dence that although similar red rock occurs extensively through the pine hills and bad lands of eastern mon man tana no like fatalities have ever been thence reported As may be supposed many curious accidents to cattle are discovered on the biannual bi annual round ups in two separate in stances a steer was found dying of starvation ow ing to a firmly fixed tomato can on the upper jaw in each case it was of course necessary to lasso and throw the animal before the obstruction could be removed my aly neighbor lund previously menti mentioned oneo found one of his long horned texan steers with its head held fast between two ash trees as in stanchions he rode to his nearby ranh for an axe and returning to the prisoner bound its head tightly around the base of horns to one tree before proceeding to cut down the other this precaution was necessary with the already infuriated steer |