Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1920-03-01
Fighting Poisonous
Plants
~ rrsdsrts J. Haskin

4 &
| people rralisc how many plants wit,
Innocent looking blossoms hold, At thsi
roots or In their leaves, n deadly poison
The Department Of Agriculture e~fimatn
IT rough g,lcss that there arc nj len,
$500 poisonous plants In the Upitet
States, and moro are added 10 the LA
every year.
Tho delicate white petals Of the lily st
the valley are fnr from safe for the roman.
Ito youi.g maiden to pluck off ard ab.
strnctHdly chew NJ she meditates ,ipon
the sender, for II she does this she will
need doctor IN short time. Tho heavy
sccE.tcd olennder il another extremely
dangerous plant TO introduce into yuir
mouth, while the breath OF the scarlet
tulip or the poppy, II inhaled too long,
and too deeply, will overcome. md may
even cause death.
A number Of other cultivated plants.
like these, arc all right 40 long ~ You do
not try 10 use them for food, or drink in
too soulful and Intoxicating drafts Of their
perfume. But the poisonous cultivated
plants are few, compared with the weeds
and wild flowers that regularly take heavy
toll Of stock and some human lives.
WATER HEMLocK DANGEROUS.
The Department Of Agriculture states
that children who play III the wooda and
fields should be warned against eating
unfamiliar roots and berries DR.. G. d.
Marsh, OF the department, an authority
on poison plants, says that the most
poisonous plant in the United States IL the
water hernlock, also called chlldbaDe
Every season number f children are
poisoned, ard usually some die, from eating
the roots Of the water hemiock. The root
OF this platt Is 80 toxic that even q small
part Of q root may cause death II IL is not
quickly removed from the system.
DR. Marsh has in his office a valuable
old book on the subject Of water hernlock
printed abroad In 1870 We sent TO
England to get it, he explained the other
day, "it IL very rare, there being only one
other copy in the United States.
When II comes TO cattle and horses.
said DIR. Marsha, Thousands die Of poi
soning Poison weeds are the bane of
every stockman, and drive many live
stock farmer out Of business bankrupt.
In the mour tains and on the plains
of the western States, cattle, sheep ard
horses are often allowed 81 range on un-
fenced lands, or are trailed over long
distances. Half million sheep NAV ~
trailed over the Same route 10 a short
time. The first who come clean UP what
Is good Then the others come along and
eat poisonous weeds because there il
not enough wholesome food there for
them
As high as fifty per cent Of q flock OF
sheep has been lost in Individual cases,
Mr. Marsh states, as a result Of poison
Dus weeds.
Chief among the stock killers studied by
he DepaT tfnent Of Agriculture are Ger
ain varieties of loco weed Long before
science became irteres ted in this baIeful
plant the cowboys believed that il was
he cause OF mysterious death and queer
behavior Of horses and cattle They 70
,lumb loco on IL, said the cattle men.
ooo being punish for crazy and popular
lang word Ia the southwest So the plant
anne to be called loco.
rsvEsT1GATE LOCO WEED.
tn Department Of Agriculture studied
his plant for over four years. and scien-
lists became very much Interested In the
question OF whether or not 10 was really /
,oisonous. Dne earn SO investigate +
made an extract from the weed and tried .
/ out on himself BY taking doses everv +
ay At the end of a few weeks his friends /
him as sane az usual. 40 that
e decided that human beings were not
Animals continued 70 die or
o crazy. however and the final nroe-
smation Was that loco weed Is sertainlv
poisonous plant where animals are con
erned
The scientists single test Of the fleets
loco weed on persons cannot be regarded
$ conclusive The investigator men
oned may have been more or less i'm
lune from this particular poison. or be
lay have not taken enough to affect
i'm Loco has long been used bv the
parish as q death-dealing poison. and
n old tradition saws that the MYSTERIOUS
lsanity Of the Mexican Empress Carlotta
as due II loco poison administered BY an
nemy.
The effect of this loco weed, which
ills more stock than any other poison.
% upset the equilibrium and nervous
stem OF the victim. A horse that is
coed will not walk across a path but
Ill hesitate and then jump awkwardly
yer IT. The cowboys tests for locoed
nimal is to throw rope about IT. II the
nimal Is locoed. it viii not step over
he rope, but instead it will lift its feet
gh in the air and try TO leap across.
he sense of vision in these cases seems 10
seriously dUecteu.
Besides acting queerly, locoed animal
oes not want TO eat anything but loco
eed. Loco eating Is habit, Just like
plum eating among human beings.
sually the animal is not locoed until
has been eating the weed for two or three
onths.
so many thousands of stock. particu-
rly horses, have died from the results
this poison, or have been left worthless
I'd miserable, that one State, several
.ars ago, provided bonus for eradica-
On of the plant. This worked very well
ID nearly a million dollars was dis
ibuted when the State discovered that
me dishonest people we're planting
co weed in order to obtain bonus for
it. That put stop TO the
mus plan. Loco is 50 generally recog-
zed as a pest, however, that good