60 BULLETIN" 365, XT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
any poisonous effect upon sheep. Not only were no poisonous effects 
produced by close feeding upon the plant but the animals did not 
lose weight and seemed to thrive upon larkspur as a fodder. In- 
quiry among the stockmen of the Gunnison and neighboring stock 
ranges brought out the fact that there is a general belief among 
them that larkspur is never poisonous to sheep. Sheep have been 
grazed upon the range not many miles from the Mount Carbon 
station for many years and there are no records of losses from lark- 
spur poisoning. Inasmuch as the feeding of Delphinium ander- 
sonii and Delphinium uicolov was also without result it seems prob- 
able that all species of larkspur are harmless so far as sheep are 
concerned. These results are in harmony with those reached by 
S. B. Nelson, in Washington, but apparently distinctly contradict 
the work of Wilcox, in Montana (1897). 
A careful examination of Wilcox's original paper shows that the 
evidence in regard to larkspur poisoning in Montana is hardly con- 
clusive. He finds that a certain number of sheep died and that these 
animals had been eating larkspur, but it does not follow, of course, 
that larkspur was the cause of the fatal results, and, with the ex- 
ception of giving extracts to three lambs, no experimental evidence 
of larkspur poisoning is adduced. It may be considered possible 
that the symptoms noted from the extracts might be explained in other 
ways. It should be noted, however, that the detailed symptoms of 
larkspur poisoning of sheep, as given by Dr. Wilcox, correspond 
very closely with the symptoms as given by other authors and with 
those noted at the Mount Carbon station. 
A visit was made to the locality in Montana where this sheep 
poisoning had taken place, and conversation with the owners of the 
sheep showed that not only were they very skeptical in regard to 
the alleged fact that larkspur is the cause of the death of the sheep, 
as described by Dr. Wilcox, but also that they and other sheepmen 
of the neighborhood did not consider the larkspurs poisonous to 
sheep. The results of the work at Mount Carbon and at Greycliff 
seem to indicate that, in all probability, larkspurs need not be feared 
by sheep owners. In California and Oregon there is among the 
sheepmen a belief, widespread and persistently adhered to, that 
many sheep are lost in the spring from eating larkspur roots. This 
belief applies, apparently, to Delphinium andersonii. This species 
has a stout stem and grows in a loose soil, so that grazing animals 
can pull up the roots. It seemed possible that sheep might be 
poisoned in this way in California and Oregon, even if they were 
not harmed in Colorado. The experimental feeding of the roots of 
Delphinium andersonii (p. 58), taken with the other results of 
feeding sheep, makes it probable that the sheepmen are mistaken in 
