St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-23
SOME POISONOUS FOOD.
In Dry Weather the Ragweed Is
Dangerous, Also tho Green
80 49, 7ss='=

In Dry Weather the Ragweed Is
Dangerous, Also tho Green
Buckeye. Ss'.:s., ;
Cincinnati Commercial. -st
Pastures, at this season of the year,
are very liable to be infested with
numerous poisonous weeds. This is
especially true of low, swampy ground.
where the raeweed would flourish with
great luxurfousness. This plant is
regarded by the farmer as a constant
menace to good milk. and in pastures
where the grass Is scarce and the weed
plenty, tile cews are apt 10 browse it
with greed. So tainted does the
milk become that it is often
unfit for household use, and even
the butter is spoiled. A slight
taint of the weed makes the milk bitter,
and.in long continued dry spells, where
the fresh grass is killed Or eaten short,
cows that pasture in the stuff often
have their milk in such a condition that
it cannot be used A heavy rain will
bring ont the grass in one day so much
that the faint of the weed has been
known to disappear in twenty-four
hours. Hence the. bad effects are apt to
disappear as suddenly as they came.
Some cows have been known To have an
unnatural craving for the ragweed, and
farmers have been known to sell good
mixer that had persisted i'll the rag
weed-eating habit to such an extent as
to make the milk valueless.
Another source of annoyance to the
farmer at this season is the buckeye.
Just now the green fruit is very juicy,
and cows once getting the taste of them
will continue eating until their milk is
ruined, and the bOvines must be cared
for and treated until the effect is gone.
Should a cow continue to eat buckeyes
it w ii sbecOmc unconscious. and have
what is known as blind staggcrs. 1t is
for this reason that every intelligent
farmer carefully culls the buckeye trees
from his pasture lands. Cows once hav-
ing tasted buckeyes can scarcely be
driven from the tree, but will continue
eating till all are gone, or else till a
stupor comes on and they fall over. The
writer has seen four or five cows thus at
tected lying under single tree. One to
two days is required for COW to recover
from buckeye drunk, and all this time
the milk is poisonous and should not be
used. Buckeyes flourish best in pastures
that border on the edges of rivers and
other streams OF water. AS soon as a
heavy frost comes and ripens the fruit,
so that it falls to the ground, the farmer
gathers the nuts up and destroys them.
AS stated, many farmers will not allow
the buckeye to grow. owing to its poison
Gus effect on the milk.
In the manufacture of starch certain
drugs are used, and the slop or refuse
after the starch is extracted IS highly
charged with the stuff. The slop is con-
Sidered Il valuable milk producer, and is
much used by dairymen in the vicinity
Of factories where it can be obtained.
When used with a plentiful supply of
grass or hay the OdOr and effect of the
Slop cannot be detected, but in dry
weather, such as has been for some
weeks past, dairymen are liable to put
their COWS in the stable and give them
nothing to eat but the starch slop. At
first the COW refuses to eat, but she is
soon starved into submission. and from
that time OH will demand the daily feed
OF slop. and cases have been known
where nothing else has been fed to
stable for an entire winter.
1t is said that both arsenic and cop
peras are used in the manufacture of
starch, and of course the refuse is satu-
rated with it. though the manufacturers
claim that they use drugs to neutralize
the pOisons and render the slop per-
fectly safe for cattle food. Nearly
every dairyman in this country uses
slop@in greater or lesser degrees. The
refuse obtained from bIeweries is not
considered SO poisonous as that from
starch factories, but the distliery re-
fuse. much used also, is about as bad.
The latter is the material referred 10
when the opprobrious name of ''slop
dairy" is used. So great is the demand
fer starch slop that III Cummlnsville
can be seen great watts where shippers
store it after bringing it from outside
places where dairies are not SO plenti
full,