12 BULLETIN 365^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRIOULTTJRE. 



of poisoning are attributed to this plant, although the stockmen may- 

 have a very indefinite idea of what larkspur really is. In other 

 cases, where they have learned that some other poisonous plant has 

 been responsible for the death of animals, larkspur losses, without 

 any doubt, are overlooked. Generally speaking, however, so far as 

 the reported larkspur poisoning refers to the summer ranges in the 

 mountains, considerable reliance can be put upon the facts presented. 

 This is generally true where the losses refer to cattle rather than to 

 sheep. 



The reports of Wilcox, 1897, and Chesnut and Wilcox, 1901, give 

 some details with regard to losses of sheep in Montana, Wilcox 

 stating that out of one band of 2,000 yearling lambs, 102 died. The 

 authors, also, have been told by Mr. L. W. Bailey, of Casper, Wyo., 

 that in the Big Horn region in 1908, 7,000 sheep were lost. Mr. Jeff. 

 Crawford, of Casper, stated that in 1907, in the months of April, 

 May, and June, he lost 23 per cent of his sheep. Both Mr. Bailey 

 and Mr. Crawford supposed that the sheep died from larkspur 

 poisoning. As is indicated eleswhere in this report, however, the 

 authors very much doubt whether larkspur is ever the cause of 

 fatalities in the case of sheep, so that in discussing larkspur losses it 

 is felt that the sheep losses can be ignored. 



More complete reports of losses have been made from the State of 

 Colorado than from any other region, largely, without doubt, be- 

 cause the experiment work of the Department of Agriculture upon 

 the larkspurs has been mainly centered in that State. Glover, 

 1906, estimated that the annual losses among the Colorado cattle 

 herds amounts to $10,000. A few concrete examples collected by the 

 authors will give a more definite idea of what this loss means in in- 

 dividual cases: 



Mr. Hartman, of Crystal Creek, Colo., reports that in 1884 or 

 1885, on the Curecanti, out of 500 head of cattle, 35 died within 5 

 hours. Mr. Creighton, of Crystal Creek, stated that out of one 

 herd of 3,000, 200 died; and out of another of 5,000, 200 died, while 

 from a herd of 6,000, 196 died. The latter fact was not an estimate, 

 but was carefully tallied by one of the stockmen. In 1908, in Wash- 

 ington Gulch, Gunnison County, Colo., 12 head of cattle were found 

 dead. In the same year in a gulch at the upper part of Red Creek 

 in the same county, 22 head of cattle died between 2 o'clock Satur- 

 day, June 27, and 2 o'clock Sunday, June 28. In this case nearly all 

 of the cattle belonged to one man. In District No. 4 of the Uncom- 

 pahgre National Forest, in the spring of 1909, according to the re- 

 port of Supervisor Spencer, 100 cattle died. Near Axial, Colo., in 

 1908, Mr. lies lost 200 head of cattle. In the same year in an area of 

 six or seven square miles near Axial, 25 head of cattle died out of 

 a total of 800. One man in Del Norte, Colo., was reported by the 



