The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-06
THE Loco WEED.
Instance of It's Remarkable Effect on
Live stock.

Live stock.
Kansas City Journal.
Speaking of the loco weed" said the
western Kansas man. Il see where some
scientific man has stated that there is moth
ing in the old theory that the loco plant
will make stock crazy. Now. want to
say that that scientific man simply doesn't
know what he is talking about. I've seen
too many locoed' horses to take any stock
in scientist who talks that way. Let
morse once get a taste of that plant and
nothing but the Kelley cure will ever fix
him again so that he will be worth the
powder and lead necessary to kill him. But
we had a practical scientific demonstration
out in the cattle town where used to have
headquarters that beat any of the opinions
OF scientific theorists. There used to be
doctor down there by the name of Dunn,
who was something Of an eXperimenter him
self. think he knocked off twenty-five or
thirty years of his life by experiments. At
terested in the loco weed, and decided that
he would test what there was in it and in
vent an antidote. He came to me one day,
all excitement, and told me he had discov
cred sure antidote for loco In fact 1t was
more. 1t would fix the system so that a
horse or COW brute could fill itself with
loco with impunity. Doc said he had fig
ured it all out, so that he knew just what
he was doing. He wanted me to go into
partnership with him in The manufacture
and sale of the antidote. lie had two or
three pages of figures, showing just where
We could sure make at least two millions
each in the next three or four years and
have a regular and tremendous income after
that Doc was so confident and had such
a list of figures that l was a little worked
up myself, but finally told him | would like
to see the stuff tried before / invested any
money in it. Doc said of course there was
10 particular use in wasting time in trying
1T, because he had figured out in scientific
way just how it would work, but If wasn't
satisfied he would demonstrate its success.
He had boiled down about four or five
bushels of loco weeds into thick syrup
there was, maybe, pint of 1T, and enough
strength in it to drive whole herd OF
Doc had an old mule which could be
induced to so off at a slow walk by larrup-
ing him with a club He was the Internal
griest Well Doc mixed that '' whole pint
of loco syrup in a bucketfu of bran, put
in his antidote, and fed the whole thing to
to. a blackboard and invited me to take a
ride. Now, said Doc he gathered up
the lines. you saw that | fed that mule
enough of the concentrated extract of the
loco to drive at least six horses or mules
crazy, but my antidote has completely neu-
tralized the effect of the poisonous plant,
and the mule will suffer no inconvenience
whatever Just then that mule commenced
TO act as if he was getting uneasy, and the
next minute he had taken the bit in his
teeth and started at a forty -mile-an~hour
gait for a barbed wire fence. Doc tried to
talk to him and saw on the lines. He might
as we'll have tried to stop a cyclone. / saw
the way the thing was going and fell out
over the wheel. Doc held on till the mule
struck the fence. He didn't recover con-
SclOuSH6SS Until one Oh the DQyS III IOWH
who had horse needle had sewed on his
left ear and taken few stitches in three
inch cut which the barb wire had made in
his leg. / was considerably damned up my
self, but not seriously injured, and was
standing over Doc when he came to- The
first words he said were: I'm afraid, Bill,
that antidote won't work well in BRAN. Oh,
yes, they found the mule next day ten
miles from town-that is, they found what
was left of it. The mule was dead. These
scientific fellows absolutely don't know
anything about loco"