ERGOT IN RYE GRASS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4160, 21 July 1874, Page 3

ERGOT IN RYE GRASS.

The following letters on this subject, which are important as affecting the interests of holders of stock in all parts of tho Colony, were read at the Philosophical Society's meeting on Saturday evening. The correspondence shows that ergot has made its appearance in the principal pastoral districts of both islands, and in fact has made such headway that close observation and prompt measures will have to be taken by everbody interested with the object of stamping out the blight, which, if allowed to remain unchecked, will prove as destructive to the flocks and herds of this Colony as the rust and smut are to the grain crops of Australia. Tho Hon. Mr. Fox, who seems to have been one of the closest observers of the ravages committed by the ergot, wrote to Dr. Hector, as follows, on the 2nd May last :—- “ I am afraid this Colony is in for a new plague, likely to be very serious to sheep farmers. The ergot has made its appearance on the rye grass, and it is believed also on the toi-toi. A friend brought me a sample of diseased heads of gra=s yesterday from Mr. Rhodes’ station near Turakiua. To-day I have found it at my own door, and I have heard of it at two other places. In one instance, where it appeared the ewes only had seventeen per cent, of lambs, while the same flock on another part of the estate had 100 per cent. Grass seed which I cut and thrashed three mmths ago was perfectly free from it, though It appears here now on growing grass.” Mr. Robert Wilson, of Epworth Lodge, Heaton Park Station, writes to the Hon. Mr. Fox on June 6th, 1874, as follows :—“ Our stock have been much affected for years from grazing on the paddock at Plains House, of this estate, which has, as a pasture, the finest rye grass to be found in the district, and it has stood as such for the last fifteen years. In Beamish’s time, the stock had access only to very impure water, strongly impregnated with mineral percolations from the sandhills. That, I used to think, was the reason why the stock were affected in the manner described. I therefore went to great pains in introducing tho purest water for the stock, but the result is still the same ; and in confirmation of the fact that it is not the -water which produces the ‘ staggers,’ I gleaned from a conversation X had with Ml*. Peacock, about two weeks ago, on the subject in question. He said, in Hawke’s Bay he has seen sheep falling down by the hundred, when moved a few chains so as to excite them a little. The sheep were depastured on pure rye grass, and almost directly they were removed to the natural grasses of the country they got better. He said people attributed it to the water, but he has seen the like result when artesian wells had been introduced, and the best of water thereby obtained. His brother, it seems, had been more observant than he, and came to the conclusion it -was not the water, but depasturing in fields of pure rye grass, that affected the sheep. The effect it produces on my stock is most injurious. I have seen as many as seventy head of cattle reeling about as if drank, and, when driven from one paddock to another, falling down quite helpless. Removing them to the native grasses always had the effect of restoring them to health and steadiness. The year before last was the first season I used the paddock at Plain’s house for sheep, when I put 90 picked ewes, with a choice ram, into it, expecting a good per centage of increase. I was, however, sadly disappointed by getting only 17 lambs. The following year I put them with the same ram in one of my paddocks up here, and last year they yielded over 100 per cent. This year I picked 275 ewes, and put them with three pure bred rams at Plains House, hut they became so terribly affected that I had to remove them. It was pitiable to see their horrible convulsions while being removed only a few hundred yards. I shall watch the result of their increase with some anxiety and interest. If, as before, my increase from them should be almost nil it should he a sufficient proof that feeding on rye grass affected by ergot produces abortion. The unfortunate thing is that I have been saving the paddock at Plains House for seed during the last few years. The pasture derived from solving seed produces the same deleterious effect on the stock. One of the drained swamps up here sown with the seed affected the cattle terribly that grazed on it this autumn. Some of the calves got quite paralysed in their hind quarters, and could be seen walking on their front legs dragging their hind parts after them. It only produced death in one instance. When they were removed to the natural grasses they recovered. Tho sheep were also affected by grazing on the newlysown pastures up here. One calf at Plains House a few weeks ago got under way and went headlong over a cliff into the river before he could stop himself. I saw the ergot in the seed of the toitoi this year. It looks as well developed as it was on the grass ■ seed. The stock are not all affected by the grass in spring. The evil effect is realised mostly after the autumn growth. In Mr. Beamish’s time at Plains House it was a matter of wonder to us why the latter, no matter however carefully it was made, should, after five or six days as a rule, become quite rancid and unfit for use. I have no doubt it was tho effect of ergot in the rye grass that occasioned it.” In a subsequent letter Mr. Fox wrote : —“ I can add little to what Mr. Wilson says. Some ten or twelve years ago, in two successive seasons, I had four horses affected as he describes his cattle. One or two of them died. The post mortem revealed full and distended stomach, apparently with undigested raupo, and wo always believed that it was caused by over-feeding- on that plant, of which there was some at hand. I heard of other horses about the same time being similarly attacked and dying. The paddock in which mine occurred was laid with rye grass, vernal, lamb’s tongue, brought from Porirua Road, had been close fed for some years before and several years since, and except at that time no exhibition of similar symptoms fed upon it. Major Willis, whose farm adjoins mine, has had two sheep much affected with giddiness (this season for the first time), when driving them, oven for a fow yards, hut no deaths have occurred as far as I know. I see a good deal of ergot on lato heads of ryo grass about my house now very fully developed, but my principal paddocks cut for hay last January showed none.” Mr. J. R. W. Cook, of Blue Cliffs Station, Timara, wrote to Dr. Hector on the 2nd July as follows :—“ I enclose a fow ears of rye grass with ergot. No doubt you have seen it before in grasses. Since the introduction of English grasses in this district a disease known here as ‘ staggers’ has appeared among sheep, so far as I have soon only in paddocks where rye grass. preponderates, and never before it seeds. The symptoms in the diseased animal aro not unlike those arising from tutu poisoning ; but in all cases 1 have met with the disease appeared wiiere there was no tutu in the pasture. On b.'ing suddenly startled, or driven at all, in many cases the sheep proceeds in a series of convulsive leaps, ending either in a partial somersault or in paralysis of the hind quarters. When down the sheep violently champs its teeth, the eyes are bloodshot, and so rolled under the lids that little but the white is visible, and there is convulsive action

of the limbi} with general rigidity of body. Bleeding seems to have little or no effect. The sheep, if left alone, generally recover, but seem dazed and stupid for some time after the St is over. The disease attacks sheep in high and low condition alike. Do you think it is attributable to the presence of ergot in the pasture ? If so, would the leaves of the plant bearing it, also be poisonous ? I shall be greatly obliged by you giving me your opinion on the subject, as also on the curative treatment of sheep presumably poisoned by ergot." The questions raised and these letters were partially replied to in the valuable discussion which took place on Saturday evening at the Philosophical Society’s meeting, but the subject will no doubt now undergo closer examination by those engaged in stockraising.