LUPINES AS POISONOUS PLANTS. 39 
can be administered at intervals frequent enough to catch the toxic 
principle as it enters the fourth stomach, recovery may be aided. 
This is of considerable theoretical interest, and the method might 
| be used in order to save an especially valuable animal, but, of course, 
range animals can not be treated in this way, for the herder may 
have a large number of sheep sick at the same time. It is not 
unusual for 200 or 300 cases to occur suddenly, and any remedy 
| which involves the administration of more than one or two doses is 
useless. 
Herders frequently bleed sheep poisoned by lupine and claim good 
results. There seems no logical reason for this, however, and the 
experience of the writers at the field station leads them to consider 
bleeding as harmful rather than beneficial. 
RANGE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH SHEEP ARE POISONED. 
It must be recognized that corral experiments, while superior to 
laboratory work in unraveling the complex problems of plant poison- 
ing of domestic animals, do not cover the conditions of range poison- 
ing. Itissometimes very difficult to decide to what extent the results 
of intensive corral feeding can be used in the explanation of range 
| phenomena. Laboratory and corral experimentation are, of course, 
_ essential in such a study, and may give, in fact do give, fundamental 
information. An intimate acquaintance with range conditions is, 
however, necessary for the practical elucidation of these problems. 
Such an acquaintance with range conditions is somewhat difficult for 
| the scientific investigator to acquire. Sheep are grazed in locations 
| situated at long distances from regular avenues of travel or communi- 
| cation, and they are also moving from place to place. Cases of 
poisoning are reported, perhaps, some days after the trouble has 
occurred, and investigation at that time is likely to be useless. It is 
very difficult for the investigator so to locate himself as to be able to 
see these cases when they occur. These difficulties doubtless explain 
why there has been so little exact knowledge of the conditions sur- 
rounding the losses. There has been, moreover, no way of placing a 
_ correct valuation on the reports made by sheep herders and owners. 
| The average sheep herder does not have a high order of intelligence, 
and this has led to an underestimate of the testimony of these men, 
for the fact has been overlooked that many of them are keen observers 
with a practical knowledge of conditions far superior to that of the 
average scientific investigator. The writers of this paper have had 
long and intimate acquaintance with the western stock ranges, but 
they have frequently been put to shame by the wonderful, almost 
instinctive, readiness with which an experienced sheepman will 
unerringly recognize slight symptoms of disease in the members of 
his flocks. The writers were fortunate in being able to observe many 
