LOCOWEED DISEASE OF SHEEP 377 



5. Water. A nuniber of ranchmen hold that there is just as close a re- 

 lationship between an insufficient water supply and locoweed disease, as an 

 insufficient food supply. 



6. Salt. It has been stated that where animals are regularly and abun- 

 dantly salted they are much less prone to become "locoed." The alkah 

 eaten by unsalted animals does not serve as a suitable substitute for salt. 

 Many ranchmen maintain that locoweed disease can be completely averted 

 if attention is paid to this matter. 



7. Lowered vitality. There is no one point upon which the ranchmen 

 are more thoroughly agreed than in the assertion that healthy animals 

 never acquire the locoweed disease. Only one or two ranchmen claim that 

 healthy, fat stock can become locoed. In practically every case the gen- 

 eral health of an animal must be lowered before it will form the "loco 

 habit." It is even stated by some that a healthy animal may eat a little 

 of the locoweed along with its regular food, and not form the "loco habit" 

 nor show any bad effects. This, however, is denied by most ranchmen. 

 The general health may be lowered as the result of insufficient food, salt, 

 or water, or as the result of other causes, such as exposure to inclement 

 weather, lack of care on the part of the shepherd, a frail constitution, or 

 any previous disease. 



8. Geographical distribution. From information received by the Poison- 

 ous Plant Investigation it seems that the disease is found wherever the 

 weed occurs, and nowhere else. The answer' to circular letters indicate 

 that at present (1904) locoweed disease prevails from Texas to Montana, 

 and from Western Kansas to California. The weed and the disease are 

 both common at an elevation of from 4000 feet to 7000 feet or even 8000 

 feet above the sea. In Montana the regions most affected appear to be the 

 foot hills and high plateaus around Judith Basin, the Musselshell and the 

 Yellowstone Rivers. In central Montana horses are more affected, in 

 Southern Montana sheep. 



9. Soil. The locoweed is very hardy and thrives even where the nutri- 

 tious grasses cannot grow well. A light soil or a broken rocky soil is favorable 

 for the weed. The attempt to prove a direct connection between an alka- 

 line soil and the locoweed disease has not succeeded, even in the cases re- 

 ported by Crawford. 



10. Incidence. It is impossible to estimate the numerical loss attributed 

 to. locoweed disease. In Montana and Colorado there is probably an aver- 

 age loss of from 10 to 25 per cent of the annual increase from this source. 

 The loss is from sickness and depreciation in value as much as from death 

 of the animals. Individual ranchmen have been met with who have been 



