Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-09-13
a Plant Poisonous to Horses.

A Plant Poisonous to Horses.
We presume that all of our readers
are familiar with the first plant here
shown, as it is very common on farms
over a very large part of the country.
1t is known as Horsetai1 (Equisetum
arvense). The two upright stalks at
the left represent the fruiting stems,
which are pale yellowish in color and
come up in early spring (April-May)
FROM the roofing branch below In
the center is such an underground
branch bearing bulbs or tubers. From
these same underground parts the
much-branched, many-jointed green
shoots arise little later (May and
June) as represented at the right
These continue to grow all summer,
and it is these that cause the poison
ing.
The Vermont station has been max
ing an investigation of this plant,
which it finds to be the cause of many
deaths among horses. AS a result,
bulletin 95 has been issued warning
farmers against feeding this in the
hay. In part the bulletin says: This
plant passes under several popular
names, of which the best, because the
most commonly used, is common
hcrsetail. Others are coltstai1. fox
PlH0-IOp, AuSooO"-
pine, jointed rush, snake grass. 1t is
a common native plant and doubtless
more or less of it may be found on
almost every farm in the state. The
plant thrives best in sandy or grav-
ely soil which is moist a portion of
the season, or where the soil water
rises to within a few feet of the sur
face. Its occurrence in hay fields in
serious amounts is apparently re-
stricted to low moist meadows, not
frequently cultivated, and it has been
observed in greater abundance in
sandy over-f1owed intervale meadows,
where it is mixed with marsh grass
es'' or sedges, and the ''polypod
brake better called the sensitive
fern, see figure 2. Its frequent oc-
currence with this s'polypod" is doubt
less responsible for the suspicion of
many horsemen that this fern is also
poisonous to horses. Attention has
been given to this matter also during
the present investigations. Without
going into details we will simply
state that no convincing evidence has
been obtained that ice 'pOlypod" is
poisonous. While we have made no
feeding trials ourselves, we have
learned of the results of those made
by others where no sickness came
from feeding much of this fern. Our
present conclusion is that the cases
of poisoning attributed to this plant,
which is a very conspicuous one in
the hay, are probably always due to
the less conspicuous horsetail which
may be present in considerable
amounts without attracting attention.
The horsetail is the more likely to be
overlooked because as the hay dries
it becomes quite brittle and breaks at
its frequent joints into short pieces.
Poisoning of horses by this plant is
doubtless of frequent occurrence
throughout the state. During the
past two years one of the authors
(F. A. R.) in his professional work
about Burlington has had twenty
three cases unquestionably due to
this form of poisoning, while his rec
ords show forty-ore cases which he
as attended within five years. There
Is no reason to believe that more of
this trouble occurs in the vicinity of
Burlington than in other sections of
the state, and when one considers that
HM