84 BULLETIN T90, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



areas on the ground, it is highly important that they be posted as 

 dangerous to the particular kind of stock affected. 



Not infrequently there is a heavy loss of stock, apparently from 

 poisoning, on areas not previously recognized as dangerous. If it is 

 reasonably certain that the loss is due to poisonous plants, and the 

 plants causing the loss are not known, some one should collect speci- 

 mens of the plants not definitely known to be harmless and submit 

 them for identification. The loss should be reported at once through 

 the forest supervisor's office to the district forester, who will inform 

 the experts on poisonous plants and request an examination of the 

 area by an expert if possible. The collection of plants should not be 

 delayed until it is known whether an expert will make an examina- 

 tion of the area. An expert is not always available at once, and by 

 the time he reaches the area the plants responsible for the loss may 

 be beyond identification. . 



The following suggestions apply to any range for the class or 

 classes of stock given : 



1. Don't overgraze the range. To do so may result in any class 

 of stock's being poisoned fatally from eating plants which do not 

 cause loss in the amount eaten when the range is not overgrazed. 

 ' 2. When stock have been driven long distances without sufficient 

 feed, or have been held off feed for any reason until they are very 

 hungry, they should not be turned on range where plants poisonous 

 to them occur in more than very small numbers. Their hunger can 

 usually be satisfied first on parts of the range where there is no danger 

 of poisoning. If no other way exists, and hay can be had, it will pay 

 to buy and feed hay. 



3. Cattle should not be salted near patches of larkspur. Areas near 

 salting places are usually closely grazed, so that cattle eat more lark- 

 spur than they ordinarily would. Further, cattle have a tendency to 

 loaf around salt and water and leisurely graze anything in sight. 

 Losses of cattle from eating larkspur near salt grounds are sometimes 

 attributed to eating too much salt. 



4. Sheep should not be bedded more than one night in a place and 

 should not be allowed to shade up for hours during the day on areas 

 where there is more than a small quantity of vegetation poisonous to 

 sheep. Vegetation suitable for sheep near a bedding ground is 

 usually grazed off during the first night of bedding. The sheep then 

 eat the poisonous species in harmful amounts. The same principle 

 applies to shading grounds. 



5. Stock should not be worried nor excited after they have grazed 

 on a poison area. They should be moved quietly to an area where 

 there is no poison and then left to rest or graze as they choose. 



6. There is usually a short time during the grazing season when 

 danger from poisoning is much greater than at other times. This 



