OCR Text |
Show ACORN DIET PROVES FATAL Seventy Head of Cattle on One Eatata Killed by Eating Fruit of Oak Pheaaanta Thrive on Them. London. During the paat few daya 70 cattle belonging to J. Illahop of llaughtun, Uhropahlre, have died through eating acorna. The cattle were gruilng In a Held In Annulate park, Btafrordahlre. belonging to Sir William llougbey, where acorna were very plentiful. Tbe loaa to Mr. Illahop la eatlmated at nearly 1.000. Heveral Hev-eral cowa belonglug to other fnrmera In the neighborhood have died .from the aame cnuae From the lletiley-on-Thamca dlatrtct, where a number of entile died through eating acorna, further caaea were reported. re-ported. One benat died, and three were found dead In a field aome mllea dtatanL An examination of one of I them revealed two btiabela of acorna Muny fnrmera In South Oxfordahlre j and llui-kliiKhnmahlre have cattle lying ly-ing eerloualy 111 from the aame cauae, ' while many can e of cattle dying ' have been reported recently, notably from the Newbury dlatrtct of llerk-ahlro llerk-ahlro and the Market Drayton dlatrtct of Shropshire. Cattle In many dlatrlrta have died from eating acorna, which are exceptionally excep-tionally plentiful thta year. In a few dlatrlcia ehecp alio have auffered, but, on the other band, many farmera have j found that both cattle and abeep have 1 fattened on dally rat Ion a of acorna j It haa been found that the beat method la to let tha rattle and aheep ! hava dally arreaa to flelde where there , are acorna. becauae the animals then I eat the acorna aa they fall and cannot devour too many or eat too quickly. On the othor linnd. If there la already a etore of acorna under the trees, or If excessive amounts of collected acorna are given to tbe cattle, dlgea-tlt dlgea-tlt troublea are at once set up and In many caaea the anlmala die. It la a curious fact In connection' wltn acorna aa a food for ducks, which usually fatten rapidly on thla food, that thla year tber will not eat acorna. Tbe reaaon probably la that the acorna are of such an ennrmoua else, and thla fact may alao have aome Influence Influ-ence In causing tha trouble with the raitlo Although ducka will not eat acorna, pheasants are eating them, with unusual gusto, and early In the morning one may are the apacea underneath un-derneath the oaka quit thick wltb pheaeunta. |