Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-06-27
CRAZY-WEED.
Quser Antics Of Horss IS from Eating LOB
Weed on Western Ranches.
q Californian Tells Of Its Peculiar Workings
Cowboys Who Attribute Its Effects to
sheep Ticks in the Horses Ears-Don't
Like sheep Any Way.

Colonel Juan ID. Mccarthy, OF Cali
fornia, sat in u New York hotel
short time ago, talking about the won
derful productions of the Pacific slope,
with reporter of the Sun. when he
mentioned the loco plant.
''Did you ever see locoed horse?"
said the Colonel. 'Of course you
never did. It's a subject that causes
more argument and row among the
stockmen OF California than the price
Of beef ever did. A locoed horse is
the worst piece OF property man can
own, next to ii corner lot in an addi-
ton to bursted boom town. You
never can tell what the critter will do
nor when he will do it. He behaves
as though he were half asleep most of
time, but just when he ought to be
asleep he'll do more fool things than
you can keep cases on. If you stake
him out near camp he'll wind himself
all up in the stake rope until he can't
walk, and then he'll suddenly pretend
that something has frightened him
and begin to kick and snort and turn
summersaults. The racket awakens
you, and supposing that II panther has
jumped the horse you rush out to help
him. 1t takes you ten minutes to I'M
tangle the horse, and as soon as he
gets upon his feet he kicks at you or
knocks you down with his stupid old
head. And then you're sorry pam
Their hadn't tackled him.
1.-The locoed horse may have been
used under saddle all his life. but some
day when you want to saddle him he
will discover that the blanket is
ravenous monster that wants to devour
him, and you can't get anywhere near
the brute. If he's tied up you have to
cut the rope to save him from dislo-
eating his neck in his efforts to escape
from that blood-thirsty saddle blanket.
Such tricks as lying down in the mid
die of creex or tumbling heels over
head into a bunch of cactus you've got
to be prepared for at any time.
TClucHUcT lOCOeu horse unaL
Sam Beacham had when we were
prospecting on the Castac. Sam thought
that plug was a jim dandy and wouldn't
admit that he was locoed. Billy had
the meanest gait you ever saw. some
thing between Looping and pacing, and
he snorted with every breath he drew
II you tried to lead him he'd fall down
in more ways than circus clown
could think of and sometimes when he
stuck his nose into a pan of barley his
lurid imagination would transform
each grain into sea serpent or
woggly-bob and away he'd CO. snorting
like locomotive and tumbling down
hill over his own feet.
you want to know the cause of
locoP Well, that's what the stockmen
quarrel about. Most people believe
that the loco plant is responsible for
the disease. 1t is a low plant that
grows in plenty all over the semi-bar-
rem land of the West. 1t bears pods
that become very dry in the summer
and rattle when the wind moves them.
don't know the botanical name, but
one OF the popular names is rattle
weed. 1t is not good forage, but stock
will eat it when feed is scarce.
"Some stockmen declare that this
rattle weed will make a horse crazy,
give him the jim-jams, so to speak,
but others scout the idea and protest
that the loco property of the rafting
pod is all superstition. A cattleman
in southern California assured me that
his horses had eaten rattle weed for
twenty-five years, or at least had had
free opportunity to eat it, but he never
had locoed horse on the range until
after the sheep began feeding over
the country in big bands. His theory
was that the sheep-ticls crawled in the
horses ears, burrowed and laid eggs.
and affected the animals just rs a spider
might affect man by crawling into
his ear and waltzing around on his
tympanum. If you have ever had a
bug in your ear you know how that
feels. And, by the way, II bug ever
gets in your ear whisky will fetch him.
Cock your head over to one side and
fill your ear with the liquor, and out
comes the bug, as dead as civil service
reform. | always carry whisky when
l go out into the mountains. because
bugs are thick there. Come to think
OF IL, perhaps that is why some folks
speak of whisky as bug juice
''Now, l don't know how much truth
there is in the tick theory about locoed
horses, although the cattleman swore
he had found ticks in the ears OF his
crazy bronchos. You see, every cat
tleman hates sheep with religious
fervor and attributes everything bad
to them. asked Kern county cattle
man one day how he accounted for
earthquakes in California and he re-
piled: It's them = sheep. l reckon. y"