Albuquerque citizen., 1908-02-28
THE LOCO WEED
FOUGHT BY
SCIENCE
Agricultural Department Has
Begun an Investigation for
the Benefit of StOCkmen.

Washington, Feb. 2S.-"Tm plum
locoed" is an expression which has
done valiant service with writer's Of
fve-cent western thrillers ever since
Diamond Dick first shot out the lights
i'm Dead Mans gulch or Butterfly
Billy of the pony express came into
being to hutter across the pages of
juvenile romance.
But the term has moved upward
and onward since some men whose
hair isn't so thick or so black as 1t
used to be made its acquaintance. 1t
may still adOrn the pages of contem-
poraneous wild west narrative--to
find out whether it does or not inter-
view your sons on the quiet about it
but it is now no stranger to those
ponderous tones and multi-syllabled
pamphlets which are the light reading
of science.
Theme for the Bulging BrowS.
In fact, loco" is just now occupy
ing much of the attention of some Of
those sages who are employed by the
government agricultural department
to wiring secrets from the soil and
plants to confound the simple farmer
who believed he knew all about farm
ing. G. Dwight Marsh is one of those
bulging brows who knows strange
secrets about simple weeds. and he
has learned SO much about the loco
plant in three or four seasons Of
delving that the department has de-
cided to let some of the facts be
known.
To discover that loco is from the
Spanish and means crazy was the
first and easiest step in the iuveStiga-
| ton. Next it was ascertained that
the loco weed is not an individual,
but family. Some scientists have as
serted that there is no such thing as
loco weed and that locoed animals be-
came Matteawan candidates because
of brain storms, parauoia or manic
| depression. Prof Marsh finds that
these learned men are at least partly
wrong, He has wandered hither and
yon in the wake of the grazing herds
on the plains of Kansas, Colorado
and Texas: and he has found nesting
near the roots of the short grass the
subtle Aragallus LAMBERT and the in
| siduOus Astragalus mollissimus
Arrested, Tried and Convicted.
| Arugallus LAMBERT has been hailed
/ before the court of science by Prot
| Marsh and tried ana convicted OF
poisoning horses, sheep and cattle,
| Astragalus mollisimus ought not tC
| be let off with less than a manslaugh-
| ter verdict as it has been shown up
! i'm It's true light as the Catherine de
Medici of the plant family SO far as
| horses are concerned Astragalus
| mollsimus does not poison cattle
| lThat is not To be credited to any len
| ieucy toward cattle on the part OF
! Astragalus mollissimus. Cattle vii
not eat il.
Locoed animals, says Prof Marsh
! show always the same symptoms
These are lowered head. rough coat
slow, staggering gait and a diseased
nervous system. StoCkmen as a rul,
believe that il is useless To attempt e
save the life of a locoed animal, bu
the investigation has shown that tn,
poison will yield to a proper treat
lmeut on the principle, perhaps, o
lighting the devil with fire, locoe'
cattle are given strychnine. Fowler
solution has proved effective Will
horses.
The loco plant can be easily eN
terminated in fenced pastures. say
the agricultural departments report
hut this is believed to be impossibl
ON the open ranges. The loco plan
is declared To cause loss of mil
lion dollars a year to Colorado stoc
men alone.
Rart Parbar Of Elton Wis saws