Railroad is intersected by'numerous valleys from one to twenty 

 miles in extent. The only time that the sheep are allowed to 

 graze in these valleys is in the fall of the year, when the sheep- 

 men sometimes rent the third crop of alfalfa from the ranchers for 

 grazing purposes. These valleys are owned and occupied by 

 permanent ranchers, who have lar.^e herds of cattle, both for beef 

 and dairy purposes. The pastures in these valleys are usually 

 well fenced and contain fields of alfalfa, Kentucky blue-grass, or 

 native grasses and sedges. 



POISONOUS PLANTS. 



It was a surprising fact that no cases of the poisoning of 

 sheep by plants on the range were met with throughout the entire 

 summer. Past experience in certain canyons, known as "poison 

 canyons," seems to be the foundation on which the sheepmen 

 work. The districts in which large numbers of sheep have been 

 poisoned in past years are now well known and the herders have 

 strict orders to keep away from them. The danger from loss by 

 poisoning is not nearly so great after the month of June, as the 

 tempting spring plants that are poisonous are usually by this 

 time dried up. In many instances when questions in regard to 

 poisonous plants were asked, the reply was that a few years ago 

 in a certain canyon about a mile over the ridge a large, number 

 of sheep were poisoned, but just which plants were the poisonous 

 ones did not seem to be known. The writers wished very much 

 that they could investigate these "poison canyons," but the time 

 at their disposal would not permit of it, so that work in connec- 

 tion with the poisonous plants of . this region still remains to be 

 done. The most practical work that has been done on poisonous 

 plants on the range is that by V. K. Chestnut and E. V. Wilcox, 

 entitled "The Stock-Poisoning Plants of Montana," Bulletin 26, 

 Division of Botany, United States Department of Agriculture, 1901 . 



A number of plants known to be poisonous were incidentally 

 collected by the writers during the summer, such as blue larkspur, 

 tall larkspur and aconite. The blue larkspur is carefully 

 avoided by sheep; the tall larkspur, although sometimes nibbled, 

 will not poison the sheep Unless large quantities of it have been 

 eaten, or when they have empty stomachs; while the aconite did 



