EXl'KKMMEXT STATION KKl'OKT. 501 



plant or root live over winter or does it come eaeh year from the 

 seed? The field, I am ciuite >ure. has never had any in it hofort' tliis 

 season.'-' 



The fact that the pest in question is the Solaniim nigrum, deter- 

 mined by sjiecimens which were sent, npon request, to the Experiment 

 Station, and that it is an annual plant, helped somewhat to solve the 

 problem of eradication. The stock of plants for any year comes from 

 seeds that have reached the soil in one or another of many ways. It 

 is possible that in the instance before us the seeds came in with the 

 millet, as is truo with many kinds of weeds when they make their 

 first appearance in a neighborhood. The weed may have been grow- 

 ing for years in some out of the way place nearljy. and the seeds 

 becoming scattered through the iiekl awaited the conditions favorable 

 for their growth. It scarcely need be said that the first step in the 

 eradication is tlie destruction of all plants before they have time to 

 mature seed either by cultivating the infested land or pulling out 

 the night-shade by the roots. This method should give satisfactory 

 results if continued for a few years until the seeds of the former 

 seasons are disposed of, provided new seeds are not brought in by 

 winds, animals or some by man as he sows his crop seeds. 



The question of the poisonous nature of the weed is put very clearly 

 by one correspondent, namelv. ''Will you please let me know if a 

 small quantity of the night-shade should get mixed in with hay in 

 the cutting would it be dangerous to feed it to cattle?" The whole 

 plant contains the narcotic poisonous principle solanine, and for 

 that reason it sliould not be fed to livestock. Just how much of 

 the dried night-shade a grown animal can eat without ill effects is a 

 matter that is very difficult to determine. Professor Y. K. Chesnut,* 

 as an authority upon the subject, states that ^'cattle seldom eat the 

 plant, but a few cases of poisoning are recorded for calves, sheep, 

 goats and swine," and again f lie states: ''The amount of poison pres- 

 ent in any part of this plant varies with the conditions of growth. 

 The more musky-odored are the most poisonous. The characteristic 

 symptoms are about the same in man and animals. They are stupe- 

 faction, staggering, loss of speech, feeling and consciousness; cramps 

 and sometimes convulsions. The pupil of the eye is generally dilated. 



* Preliminary Catalogue of Plants Poisonous to Stock, Report of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, U. S. Dept of Agric, 1898. 



t Thirty Poisonous Plants, Farmeri' Bulletin, No. 86, U S Dept. of Agric, 1898. 



