, 1906-08-07
LARKSPUR
BULLETIN
COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION
ENLlGHTENS PUBLIC ON
SOME POISONOUS PLANTS.
DR., Glover Of That Station Prepares
Treatise of Value to Every Stock
mar in West-Main Ideas Repro
duced in Article in Current Num-
Der Of Ranchman's Reminder,

Prof. b. C. Buffum, director of the
Wyoming experiment station and ed.
itor of the Ranchman's Reminder, has
the following in the last issue of that
publication:
Last month the Colorado Experiment
Station published Bulletin No. II3, on
"Larkspur and Other Poisonous Plants
This bulletin is written by DR.. George
II. Glover, the Veterinarian of the Colo
RADIO Station, and contains material OF
so much Importance to all western stock
men that we have decided to give ii
some space in this issue of The RE-
MINDER. DIR. Glover has studied poison
GUS plants for a number of years, and
what he says upon the subject is au-
thoritative and worthy of careful con
sideration..
The bulletin treats principally of the
so-called poison weed" or Larkspur,
though it treats of poisonous plants in
general and gives considerable data about
several other species known t o destroy
stock in the west. 1t is probable that
Larkspur causes more loss in Wyoming
than any other poisonous plant. DR..
Gloves estimates that stock to the value
of at least forty thousand dollars are
destroyed annually by it in Colorado.
He names four species which do the
most damage in Colorado. The prin-
cipal ones are DcibhiHium bic0l0r or d.
NcLsOnii and d. gldncHm or d. eIOngd-
iHm. These plants are so well known by
Wyoming stockmen under the general
name of poison weed that they need no
description. Everyone is acquainted also
with the symptoms of poisoning and the
death of animals from eating this plant
in the early spring. He says that in
cases where the bloating becomes ex-
IRENE, the practice of tapping the left
side in the rumen for the purpose OF
allowing the gas to escape in extreme
cases is good treatment and has no doubt
been the means Of saving many an an
imal. Every stockman should carry a
trocar with him while riding the range
during the spring months to use for this
operation and not be obliged to use the
jack-knife. The instrument can be pur-
chased at hardware stores for one dollar
or less. The results of using it in the
case of bloat in cattle or sheep from any
cause are usually perfectly satisfactory
and the animals will not shrink in con-
dition as is usually the case from using
the knife. The most trouble occurs when
the animals are being moved from place
to place during the spring months. In
most cases the man is alone and may
have several poisoned at the same time.
His treatment must be simple, effective,
and done without delay. The practice OF
turning them so they will lie with the
head uphill is to be commended, as it
relieves the pressure on the lungs and
heart from the distended bowels. Bleed
ing is usually recommended and prac-
ticed by the sheep herder and cowman
1t is difficult to see how it can be of any
benefit, and experimentally it is not
proved to be So"
After discussing the various other
things which stockmen sometimes do to
make the death of poisoned animals more
severe, in their attempts to iva them, the
doctor says: 1--WE have at least two
remedies which possess antidotal value.
These cases OF poisoning occur in almost
every instance in mountain ranges far
removed from immediate assistance and
under the worst conditions imaginable.