POISONOUS PLANTS 253 



on will go to the irrigating ditches and stand with their 

 front feet high up on the bank of the ditch and their 

 hind feet in the water, thus allowing the stomach to 

 drop back and relieve the pressure on the other organs. 

 They will groan and grunt at a great rate, showing they 

 are feeling far from comfortable, and animals in this 

 condition should be carefully watched. 



I have known a ditch to break and allow the water 

 to run unnoticed all night long on the alfalfa where a 

 hundred fine four-year-old steers were grazing. The 

 effect of the water on the alfalfa was so prompt that in 

 less than twelve hours fifty of the animals were dead 

 from bloat. There is no such thing as the animal be- 

 coming immune in any sense of the word. 



Nor is the bloat due wholly to green feed. I have 

 known a bunch of fifty yearlings put into a feed yard 

 over night and fed on dry alfalfa hay and in the mor- 

 ning ten of them were dead from bloat. Milk cows, 

 fed all their lives on the hay, have been killed from 

 eating alfalfa. Investigation of many such cases shows 

 that generally death resulted from eating hay coming 

 from the first cutting, and also that the animals had 

 eaten unusually large amounts of the fine leaves. 



Sheep, although subject to bloat, do not seem to be 

 so easily affected as cattle, and the loss among sheep 

 from this trouble is comparatively slight. Horses and 

 hogs do not appear to bloat from either green or cured 

 alfalfa. 



As a general thing, cattle grazing upon alfalfa fields 

 should always be carefully watched, especially in the 

 early spring, when the plant is just starting to grow. 

 When the trouble reaches a certain point immediate 

 action is necessary or the animal is beyond help. The 



