CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING POISON PARSNIP (WATER HEMLOCK) 



(1) It is highly poisonous to cattle, sheep, and horses. 



(2) The tops are deadly in the early spring, but as they grow larger 

 they cease to be poisonous. 



(3) The older tops are not poisonous. 



(4) Two ounces, -J of a pound, or more of the old tubers (roots) are 

 sufficient to kill ordinary range ewes or to make them sick. 



(5) Ten to twelve ounces, about f of a pound, of the old tubers will 

 usually prove fatal to fully matured cows. 



(6) A dose of | pound to one pound of the old tubers will kill a horse. 



(7) The young tubers are much less poisonous than the old ones, 

 for it takes from two to four times as much of the new tubers to kill 

 an animal. 



(8) Water hemlock tubers shipped to Reno from Nebraska were much 

 less poisonous than the tubers found growing in Nevada. 



(9) For sheep it takes from 16 to 75 minutes for symptoms to 

 appear. In the cow it takes about an hour and in horses about 45 

 minutes. 



(10) There is no known remedy. 



(11) Drying does not immediately destroy the poisonous principle in 

 the plant. One-half ounce of dried tubers killed a mature ewe. 



(12) The poison parsnip is easily removed from fields by grubbing. 

 Great care must be taken to dispose of all the tubers, so that live stock 

 cannot get any chance to eat them. 



(13) Most of the year only the tubers (roots) are poisonous. In the 

 early spring the young leaves are almost, if not quite, as poisonous as 

 the tubers. This is the time when the danger is greatest. 



