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Show POISONOUS PLANTS ON THE RANGE. The forest service has experts in the field, studying the poisonous plants on the ranges of the west which, among the causes of loss of stock, we are told, rank first. A day this week Dr. C. D. Marsh, who has Investigated poisonous plants, in an address before the foresters for-esters club of Ogden, made the state ment that in Colorado, alone tha stockmen lose one million dollars annually an-nually from loco weed, and stockmen stock-men have gone bankrupt from the death of the stock from this cause. Ever since cattle and sheep were first ranged in the hills of this western west-ern country', there have been heavy death losses from poisonous weeds, but there was no one to carefully go over the field In an effort to seek out a remedy until the forest service became Interested In the grazing of livestock on the national forests. Now the plants that cause the losses loss-es are being studied and already safeguards safe-guards are being suggested. "Next to loco, the greatest losses are probably caused by larkspur," says Dr. Marsh, "and on the mountain moun-tain ranges the losses of cattle from larkspur probably run from 3 to 5 per cent annually. Losses as high as 10 per cent have not been unusual, un-usual, but for the last few years 3 per cent is considered a good estimate. esti-mate. There are other more violent poisons, of course, as the Cicuta, or water hemlock, which ' sometimes causes a total loss to a. stockman, but the cases of hemlock poisoning are not so general. The death camas Is also more violent, and losses of one, five or six hundred in two or three days rom this have been known." Describing the low larkspurs found in Utah, Dr. Marsh said it grows at altitudes usually from four to ten thousand feet. This plant is a foot rarely two feet high, and has the deeply cleft leaves which are often mistaken for the wild geranium or aconite, or vice versa. The low larkspur lark-spur blossoms in June and is usually usual-ly dead in July and entirely disap-pears. disap-pears. It has tuberous roots, which are easily pulled up, and, since losses loss-es are often heavy following a rain, the' poison was supposed to be contained con-tained in the roots.., "In order better to study the symptoms symp-toms of larkspur poisoning, the post mortem appearances of a poisoned animal; the amount of larkspur necessary nec-essary to be fatal; the part of the plant most dangerous; the seasons of poisoning; and the best remedies, a station was established on the Gunnison Gun-nison forest in Colorado, near to I both low and tall larkspur, 'skunk's cabbage and cicuta. The first year in May, the cattle were fed on both tops and roots of low larksnur. flrv and wet, and some were kept quiet and others driven about. Not an animal ani-mal was poisoned. In July, however, there were cases of poisoning, and the absence of indications of poisoning poison-ing in May vas because the stock had riot eaten a sufficient quantity. Loco, to be fatal, must be fed on from three to five months, an animal eating from three to five hundred pounds. Of larkspur an animal irihst eat an amount equivalent to 3 per cent of its weight, i. e. 30 pounds by an animal weighing 1000 pounds, and sometimes it must eat as much as a quantity one-tenth Us weight, "Tests show that in its prime, all parts of the plant are practically of equal toxlolty, but when matured, the seeds contain a larger amount. The low larkspur is toxic from the time it starts until It disappears, but from the time the tall larkspur bloomB its toxicity gradually disap. pears until cattle can eat its leaves without harm provided thoy do not get any of tho seeds. In the Sierras the seasons of poisoning are approximately approx-imately one month later than in Colorado and Utah. "Although horses can be poiscned with larkspur, It is probable they never would be if left to their own selection of food, Sheep are never poisoned by larkspur, and it is often a good plan to use heavy Bheep grazing graz-ing to kill out sWll patches. Eradication- 6f small patches of 1 r larkspur is practicable, and in Montana, Mon-tana, just north of the Yellowstone park, two ranchers break down the larkspur by dragging over it a log on which an iron shoe has been attached at-tached to form a cutting edge. Encouragement should be given the handling of animals so that they will not get poison. By not permitting them to get so hungry they will eat anything, and by permitting them to drift, rather than driving them. In Colorado there is a pass over which stock was yearly driven in July to new ranges, always attended by losses from poisoning. They now permit the stock to drift over in small bunches of 25 or 30, and there is no loss. I Dr. Marsh has summarized the results re-sults of his investigations as follows: Loco, worst poisonous plant on western ranges, reputed to have caused caus-ed loss of $1,000,000 annually to Colorado Colo-rado stockmen. Larkspur most widely distributed and generally destructive of poisonous poison-ous plants on ranges. Identification: Loaf similar to geranium, but moro deeply cleft (often mistaken for wild geranium, a valuable forage plant). Larkspur has spurred blue flower. All larkspurs are dangerous for cattle, cat-tle, but not for horses or sheep. The first symptoms of poisoning are arched arch-ed back, lowered head, staggering and backward movements. Remedies: Immediate Im-mediate relief by physic, or hypodermic hypoder-mic injection of eserlne, or physostig-mine, physostig-mine, or whisky. When the animal is down, see that Its head is up-hill. Losses occur almost entirely in the months of May and June, and July, depending upon altitude and species. Poisoning may be largely prevented prevent-ed by keeping cattle away from the poison areas until the end of July. Cattle poisoned by larkspur should be kept as quiet as possible, should be paunched if bloating occurs, and should not be bled and may in many cases be saved by a subcutaneous injection of physostigmine salicylate, pilocarpln hydrochlorid, and strychnin strych-nin sulphate. |