Weekly journal-miner., 1919-07-16


 Across the old Staked Plain.
 Chorus.
 The Texas steer came down the
 hollow
 A long time ago;
 He paved an beloved an kicked up
 wallow
 IA long time ago.
 Droned out of husky, sun-burned throais the old Trail song used to soothe the long-horned herds up out of Texas as the spring rains began slowly, fattening on the way on grasses richer than present day alfalfa fields and still furrowed with buffalo trails leading to all the best crossings and water holes; up on to the great markets at Dodge City and Els worth, themselves the centers of wide oceans of buffalo grass, none Of 1t richer or grecner than all Yavapai under the rains of the past two weeks
 To be sure the day of the long-horn beef steer and cattle driven overland to market is gone but the white faced steers come down the hollow and paw and below and kick lip a wallow" in pure joy of all the grass and water they want all day long.
 Yavapai stockmen are about as joy ful, and the informal meeting last week, though several important mem bers were water-bound and unable to be present. was both interesting i'll it. self and valuable as part of the future trend of the business. It was really meeting of members of the state association in informal conference with special representative ot the forest service to talk over the rela' lions between that service and the livestock industry and to prepare tol the meeting of the National Associa' tion of Stock Growers at Salt Lake l City at which both Secretary Hou' ston and Secretary Lane are to D' present and at which the most i'm portant problems of range contro now confronting the livestock indus trv of the West are to be discussed with view to reaching just ana permanent solution.
 One frank statement of the gcntle' man representing the forest servlce Is of snccial interest; he said that in the cxDerience of the service in leasing ~anoes the best returns-the best use of range forage and least injury tc forest holdings. had come from the medium sized outtits-those not toe large for the personal supervision oi inc owner, yet large enough to insure his constant interest and attention.
 The Salt Lake meeting is of keencsi ;rportance to even the smallest cattle prower but it is just as important that every stockman should be mem Der of his home association and at tend its local meetings faithfully Sunnose all of us smaller cattle grow crs were to send ill our names to NIT Gentry as wouId-be "joiners, ne d shout for joy and give us the gladdest hand ever. Let's try it on him.
 The question of the poisoning ol cattle from feeding upon the we'll known careless weed, now in rank growth all over this part of Arizona is still under investigation and data IS being gathered from various sources Half a dozen instances have been found which prove that, at times at least the green weed will kill stock; loss immediately after feeding has been reported of large healthy calves milk cows and also of perfectly healthy hogs.
 On the other hand it is well-known that all animals eat the weed freely 1n its season and that it is generally re parded as harmless and is even used for human food, especially by the Mcxicans who are very fond ot it cooked as greens.
 When it does kill stock they die quickly and in great agony with every svmptom of violent poison, not in the least like bloat from alfalfa or other green iced. There are two quite dis tinct varieties of the weed ill this part of Yavapai; one is a tall, rank plant of upright growth, the other trailing ar creeping but rank grower i'll Its own way. Some cattlemen have lost stock immediately upon feeding this variety but have fed the tall plant without harm; other ranchers think fine poison is located in the mature seed heads which are very harsh and pricklv ill both varieties. State au- thorities are still studying the plant and just at this season when it is in rank growth, and especially as the seed heads mature, every stockman should keep close watch and report any deaths or sickness that might be due to the weed to our state veterin- arian at Phoenix, for there is no doubt as to its deadly quality at times, and several thousand dollars would hardly cover the loss in certain parts of Yav- apai the past year. There was no question whatever as to the weed for the perfectly healthy animals died in 1. ,ft faJ