The Grit-advocate., 1900-06-08
NOxIOUS PLANTS WHICH KILL
OFF STOCK.
Death Turks In Many Growths Common
In the Fields-Fifty-Two Kinds Are
Poisonous and SeventySix Are Under
the Ban Of Suspicion.

seems to be lost whom the animals are
domssticated, as result of which
thousands of head of live stock are lost
in this country every year through
poisonous vegetation. The department
of agriculture has made scientific in
vestigation and has issued q catalogue
OF plants that are poisonous or dan
ssrous to stock. There are So species
that are poisonous, 80 concerning the
poisonous qualities Of which there is
good though not positive evidence, and
81 which come under the head OF sus-
poets. Nearly all Of these forms OF
vegetation are Of common growth in
various parts of the country. OF the
grasses, which nearly all ruminant an
tmals of this continent feed upon, sew
eral species are dangerous. The seed
of the darnel, or poison rye grass,
which grows abundantly on the Paci-
hc slope. Is said to be dangerous to
both animals and man. In New Mexico
and Arizona grows perennial grass
locally known as sleepy grass, which
horses and cattle bred in that region
recognize and eschew as harmful; but
imported stock feed upon 1t and often
die Of its narcotic effects, falling into
deep slumber, from which 1t Is i'm
possible to arouse them. Indian corn
grass has been described as fatal to
cattle when eaten in large quantities,
but the poisonous properties are due,
not to the vegetation itself. but to pa
rasitic growths upon it. The common
species of ergot which grows among
meadoW grasses causes yearly heavy
mortality Every year farmers report
golden rod. and this. too. is very likely
q case of parasitic growth, known as
rust Another product Of the flower
garden, and one Of the most beautiful,
is a swift and violent poison to man
and beast alike; the delicate and frag'
rant lily of the valley. Cases of severe
poisoning are on record, where people
have merely bitten at the stems OF
the plant In abstraction.
Most dreaded Of all poisonous weeds
by ranchmen Is the loco weed, common
in one or another of It's forms through
out the west, where it does enormous
damage to stock The chief damage is
to horses, which seem to take to the
weed more readily than cattle, and
soon become locoed. A horse is said to
be locoed when he acquires an unnat-
ural appetite for the deleterous weed
Once in this condition he will touch
no other food and in short time be-
comes crazy, in which state he some
times runs wild, lashing out with his
heels and biting at the man or animal
that comes near him. and sometimes
staggers about with dropping head and
half-closed eyes till death supervenes.
The cause of death is thought to be
inanition rather than actual poisoning
in loco cases. as there is no nourish-
ment in the weed and the animals ad-
dicted to the habit pine away with
surprising rapidity, The loco habit In
horses is comparable to the opium or
hasheesh habit in human beings, ex-
cept that the animal, having no rea-
soning powers to act as check upon his
appetite, succumbs more quickly. The
state of Colorado between 1881 and
1885 paid out in bounties nearly $780,
900 in an effort to exterminate the
woolly loco weed, which is the COM
monest species in that region, but the
plant is still abundant there. To sheep
the lupinss, genius of herbaceous
shrub, are almost as deadly as the loco
IL to horses. Reports from three herds
in 1898 show mortality Of 1000 from
tvs