The Nevada County picayune., 1921-12-22

l damage, professional hunters are sent to destroy them. The losses due to disease and accident and miscellane- ous causes could be substantially de- creased if more herders were employed | by the owners. Under conditions which l obtain on the national forest ranges one or two herders could handle from five hundred to thousand cattle with | out particular difficulty. On the same | scale that 1t pays to herd sheep on the government ranges 1t also Is profit able to herd cattle and, potentially permittees probably will come to this decision of their own accord.
 Poisonous plants-and particularly larkspur-are responsible annually for large losses of live stock throughout the western states. There is only one effective system of ridding the ranges of larkspur and that Is to grub the plants out season after season until finally the range will be free of this objectionable growth.
 The experiences of certain rancher | whose range abuts one of the Califor- nia national forests, and who, under | the supervision of the United States forest service has been waging win, l n!ng fight against larkspur during the last four years. are iluminative in this regard. After careful trial and study of the control methods and the results this stockman is enthusiastic about the efficiency of the plan and he urges ev- cry other rancher or stockman who owns infested range to give the system of eradication thorough and impar- tial trial.
 Ideal Pasturaoe Infested.
 In this instance the larkspur was prevalent in large amounts on range where the grazing was otherwise excep- tonally good. The infested area was on a side hill where seepage from spring near the top of the hill pro- vided plenty of moisture, so that the grass was unusually luxuriant at all times during the grazing period. The rancher had to have herder with the cattle constantly in order to keep them off the larkspur-infested area. Not only did he lose the use of excel lent range, but he also was under ex- tra expense to protect his cattle from the poisonous plants. During the 1913 grazing season he lost ten steers, which, despite the efforts of the herder, trespassed on the arkspur area and Succumbed to the poisoning which re- suited. The following season, under similar conditions, 24 head of valuable range cattle were poisoned. The next year only five steers died from lark spur poisoning, while the following year the mortality aggregated eighteen head. In 1917 the larkspur eradication campaign was instituted, and as con- sequence of the work of that season the cattle losses were curtaied to only five animals. The next year the work was continued and not single case of steer mortality from larkspur poison ing occurred In 1919 only two steers died, while last year the mortality also was limited to two animals Recently the larkspur area of the range has been grazed by band of 2,OOO sheep.
 One Hundred Acres Grubbed.
 The first season about one hundred acres of range were grubbed. the poi sonous plants being eradicated with larkspur picks and scattered in ex- posed places to dry in the sun. One man could dig Ill acres a day The total cost of grubbing the one hundred acres the first year amounted to S450.30 an average of S4.50 an acre. The losses of cattle were reduced from IS head the year before to head the following season. The saving of 13 head of cattle was directly due L. the larkspur eradication work Est mating these steers worth $50 apiece, saving of S65O resulted, which paid all the expense of the grubbing and left balance of $199.70 to the credit of the work The following season the range carried 30 more head of cattle as result of the decrease in the amount and severity of the larkspur infection.
 In passing 1t is worthy of mention that the larkspur picks are made from ordinary surface picks by drawing out one point to chisel form about two inches wide, while the other point Is sharpened in diamond shape. Gen. erally pruning shears and small hand axes are used in cutting out the brush and trees which obstruct the access of the workmen to the larkspur Ord- narily an average workman can grub out from seventy to eighty larkspur plants an hour. The last two seasons the grubbing work has been continued