268 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



is so rapid that full-grown cattle have been known to 

 die from its effects within half an hour after eating it. 

 The plant is easily recognized. It is not so common but 

 that it can be eliminated from a range by a little syste- 

 matic work in cutting or grubbing up the roots with a 

 hoe or other suitable tool. 



Aconite (Aconitum columbianum). Known locally as 

 monks hood or wolfbane, this pretty flowering plant is 

 found all over the western stock ranges, and has been 

 held responsible for many deaths among stock. It is 

 believed, however, that these losses were due to larkspur, 

 which is a near relative of aconite. It has the same blue 

 flower of the larkspur and the same poisonous qualities, 

 but as it grows in rough inaccessible places, and is not 

 largely distributed, the losses from it are doubtless small. 



Scrub Oak (Quercus gambelii Q. undulata). Known 

 also as "shin oak." This is the scrub oak of the western 

 ranges, especially in the Southwest, where it forms as on 

 the Texas staked plains great areas called "shinneries." 

 In the higher foothills it grows to a considerable height 

 in dense thickets, there known as scrub oak. It is an 

 important article of forage for all kinds of stock, espe- 

 cially cattle at certain times in the spring. When there 

 is plenty of other feed and the buds and young leaves are 

 eaten in connection with other feed, no injurious effects 

 are observed, but when feed is scarce and cattle browse 

 almost exclusively on the oak, serious losses ensue. In 

 New Mexico, Colorado, and parts of Arizona the losses 

 from oak-poisoning are heavy among cattle in cold back- 

 ward springs, when other feed is scarce. 



The symptoms of oak poisoning are high fever; the 

 lips and noses of the animals become scabby and sore; 

 the flesh cracks; the eyes are deep-set; the hair all turns 



