STOCK-POISONING PLANTS OF THE RANGE 73 



they are almost certain to be poisoned if the plants are in pod at the 

 time. A large number of specific instances have been noted. At 

 one place in Idaho, for instance, where losses have occurred repeat- 

 edly, it was found that the sheep were trailed in a narrow space 

 through a patch of lupine. The remedy in such cases clearly is to 

 see that the sheep, when it is necessary to trail them through a patch 

 of lupine, are drifted rather than driven, and that they are well fed 

 when they come upon the lupine area. It seems probable that intelli- 

 gent handling of bands of sheep may reduce to almost nothing the 

 losses occasioned by death camas and lupine. If, however, hungry 

 sheep come in contact with fields of death camas in the spring, or 

 with fields of lupine late in the summer and in the fall, at a time 

 when the plants are bearing pods, fatal results must be expected. 



In one locality in Oregon an instance of this character occurred in 

 the summer of 1914, when about 4,000 sheep which had been driven 

 rather rapidly along a trail where forage was scarce were turned 

 into a 10-acre pasture on which there was little but sagebrush 

 and lupine, the lupine at that time being in pod. About 400 out of 

 the 4.000 sheep died. Similar instances may be cited in a large 

 number of places. Sometimes successive bands of sheep are driven 

 over a trail, several going without any loss whatever ; then one band 

 may suffer heavily, while others following are not harmed. The 

 explanation of these cases seems to be that the first animals going 

 over the trail avail themselves of all the useful forage. The succeed- 

 ing animals, finding nothing suitable for feed, take the poisonous 

 plants, which may be wild cherry or lupine, or, in the case of cattle, 

 larkspur. The animals which are poisoned may exhaust the supply, 

 even of the poisonous plants, so that succeeding bands are not 

 poisoned and get across the trail safely provided they do not fall 

 from actual starvation. 



It follows from these facts that it is very undesirable to keep sheep 

 for any length of time on the same bedding ground. It has been 

 shown to be bad for the range on general principles, but it is also 

 rather risky for the sheep themselves, for if animals go out from 

 the same place day after day and return at night they will eat every- 

 thing that is available along the route. In such cases, if there are 

 poisonous plants to be obtained, the animals are apt at some time 

 to get hold of them, with disastrous results. This has been very 

 clearly shown in a case of Menziesia poisoning, in which animals 

 were bedded on a forest range for five nights in the same place; the 

 animals were safe for the first two nights, but after that there was 

 heavy loss. At the same time a band that was wandering about 

 without a herder in the same region was uninjured. 



It can not be too strongly impressed on persons handling sheep on 

 the range that the sheep should be allowed to graze as far as possible 

 under strictly natural conditions. By this is meant that they should 

 be allowed to go freely, separated from one another, moving slowly. 

 and not permitted to graze over and over on the same ground. The 

 so-called blanket system of herding, w T hich is advocated by the Forest 

 Service, in addition to the fact that it aids in the conservation of the 

 range, also without any doubt reduces the losses from poisonous 

 plants to a minimum, if it does not entirely do away with them. 



