SUSPECTED SPECIES. 133 



OAT SMUT. 



{Ustilago arenas (Pers.) Jensen.) 



It frequent!}^ happens that where seed oats are untreated the smut 

 develops to such an extent that the crop is worthless for grain. 

 Usually, however, the crop is harvested at the regular season and 

 thrashed for the small quantity of grain which is present. In a case 

 of this sort which occurred in the Gallatin Valley during the summer 

 of 1898 the crop of oats appeared so badly infested with smut that it 

 was cut before becoming matured and stored for hay. During the 

 following winter a herd of dairy cows belonging to the owner of the 

 hay were fed upon clover and timothy hay until late in winter, when 

 orders were given to begin feeding the smutty oat hay. Within 

 twelve hours after the first feed one-half of the dairy cows died with 

 symptoms of gastritis and cerebral excitement. No more of this hay 

 was fed and no further loss of dairy cows was suffered. On post- 

 mortem examination it was found that the walls of the stomach were 

 much congested, showing a decided irritation. On examination of 

 the oat hay it appeared that the oat heads were almost a solid mass of 

 smut, having been cut before the smut had blown away. The evi- 

 dence against the oat smut as being the cause of the death of these 

 animals is considered very strong. 



SPURGES. 



{Euphorbia spp.) 



Erect, spreading, or prostrate herbs, with milky, acrid juice, and 

 opposite or alternate leaves, the upper in whorls and frequently 

 colored at the tops. 



All of the numerous spurges native to the United States contain an 

 acrid, milky juice which is poisonous, but stock very rarely eat the 

 plants, as almost all are rather inconspicuous and would offer but little 

 attraction, even if they were not repulsive to the taste. Stock have, 

 however, been poisoned b}^ drinking the water into which the leaves 

 had been thrown. Six species are accredited to Montana, but none 

 have been suspected of being poisonous to stock. They seldom grow 

 at an altitude higher than 6,000 feet, and are common, as a rule, only 

 in' the lower plains region. 



Eujyhoriia glyptospenna Engelm,, which is probably the most abun- 

 dantly distributed species, is a troublesome garden weed near Custer, 

 Mont. It is a smooth plant, with linear-oblong, sharply serrate leaves. 

 Its flowers are in leafy clusters on the side of the stem. Euphorhia 

 margirvata Pursh, the juice of which is used to some extent in Texas 

 to brand cattle, and which has once been suspected of being poisonous 

 to cattle, grows on prairie pastures up to about 3,000 feet in Custer, 



