The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-10
A INSECT.
Worm Discovered That Eats Only
Loco Weed.

N Lawrence (hdu.J ddlGllc. EA-AHdA-
cellor Snow returned last night from
a six weeks bug hunting expedition to
Clarke county, Kansas, and as these
bug junketing trips are more %rejuve-
mating to the doctor than the nectar
of the gods, he is looking hale and
hearty and fat and tanned. The X
chancellor took with him Doctor c.
F. Adams of Kansas university, and
Eugene Smyth and Roy Rach of To-
peka, all kindred bugologists.
One of the most important discover
les of their six weeks expedition was
the finding of a worm which feeds
alone on the loco weed, and a Weaxel
subsisting on the seed of the plant.
The loco weed is the greatest ena
to the stockman in the short grass
country, and if Doctor Shows newly
in sufficient numbers, incalculable
benefit will be done to the cattlemen.
The loco weed is a plant that has
caused much investigation and specu.
lation among the cattlemen of the
west and the scientists who have
become interested in it. 1t is widely
scattered throughout the southwest,
and produces a most remarkable effect
upon cattle and horses that eat it.
The word "locoed" in the vernacular
| of the southwest e either an ami
NAL has been eating the loco weed
or a man who has been filling up on
| bug juice. The one acts on the ami
NAL almost exactly as the other acts
on the man. Possibly the animal
has the advantage in that the loco
weed kills a little sooner than the
whisky does. +
And very strangely, it is not al
accident that the animals eat it. Pos
sibly the first few times it may be
accidental, or incidental, as the frs
few drinks are with men, but afte1
that it is a habit. A steer that has
the loco habit will go as far to flint
loco weed as an old soak will go aftel
a drink. Possibly the effect is NOR
like opium or cocaine in man, thai
like whisky. But there seems to b
no Kelley cure that touches the loco
When the animal has acquired tn
habit. he refuses to eat anything bu
the weed, and he will range arOun'
} until he finds a patch of it, and the
he will eat until he is as drunk as
lord and staggers like a man who ha
3 gone UP against a jug of Union av'
nue. snake medicine.
The effect on the animals is as vi
ried as the effect of whisky is on ma
: although usually after the habit
acquired they eat until stupid an
a neryeless. But occasionally an Of
n Ionghorn is found who has his tigh
ing clothes on&and is looking for tro
BILE. Such fellows are as hard to co
troll as a man who is full of ightlT
/ whisky, and usually the only thing
E. do with them is to give them a bull
d where it will do the most good.
al 1t has been manifestly a practic
impossibility to find a cure for tt
disease. You may lock a man up al
inject bichloride of gold. or hydra
water, or something equally ef1cacio
70 into his veins, and keep him tied
It. until he gets good, but you can't
lie that with a Texas steer. The nome
m. you let him out he gallops off aft
a weed jag, and he gets it If the
is a loco weed on the prairie. If Ok
u tor Snow has found something tn
will chew up the weed and kill it G
he has done as good a work for t
~ southwestern cattleman as he did I
: the Kansas farmer when he mix
his poison and induced the chinch' b
to try it for dyspepsia.
GRAND ELKS EXCURSION.