THE WHORLED MILKWEED AS A POISONOUS PLANT, 3 
which were identified as Asclepias galioides or Asclepias verticiUata. 
He stated that it was known in that region as the " beeweed " and 
that it was regarded as very poisonous to stock. 
A statement was sent to the department from the Coconino Na- 
tional Forest, Arizona, which indicated that considerable numbers 
of sheep were lost in that locality from poisoning by " milkweed." 
Assistant Botanist Eggleston, while at Mount Carmel, southern 
Utah, in 1914, was told by Bishop Sorenson that he had seen calves 
poisoned by the whorled milkweed. 
A trip was made b}^ the senior author in 1916 to New Harmony, 
Utah, on the edge of the Dixie Forest, where losses were said to 
occur from Asclepias subulata. 1 Stockmen in the neighborhood of 
New Harmony gave somewhat detailed accounts of the deaths of 
both sheep and cattle from this milkweed, which grows in abun- 
dance near the irrigated lands. Arrangements were made with some 
of them to send a quantity of the milkweed to the experiment station 
at Salina, Utah, for experimental work. The material failed to 
arrive, and consequently the experimental work was not undertaken 
so early as had been planned. 
In the fall of 1917 some Colorado papers gave detailed accounts 
of the loss of 800 sheep in the neighborhood of Dolores and it was 
stated that the place where the animals died had been known as a 
" death patch." From the Montezuma National Forest details were 
obtained of the losses, which, it appeared, did not occur in Dolores 
but just east of Cortez. It seems that losses had occurred there in 
preceding years, but at that time, December 7, 736 head out of 1,000 
died and it was supposed that the milkweed was the cause. The 
locality was visited by the senior author in October, 1918, and a 
careful examination of the region was made in company with Gordon 
Parker, supervisor of the Montezuma National Forest, and County 
Agent Newsom. It was found that the place where the loss occurred 
in 1917 was an area a short distance from Cortez, in which Asclepias 
galioides grows in great abundance. Mr. Newsom said that deaths 
had occurred repeatedly on this area and that within 3 or 4 years 
from $35,000 to $45,000 worth of sheep had been lost. This case was 
reported also by Glover, Newsom, and Robbins. It was found that 
there were thick patches of the weed in other localities near Cortez, 
and that there had been other cases of poisoning. From stockmen it 
was learned also that there had been serious losses near Dolores. 
The Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel of March 20, 1918, 
reported that about 60 head of sheep near Whitewater, Colo., had 
been poisoned by hay which contained milkweed. The case was 
investigated in the following May by a member of the department's 
1 It may be noted that systematic botanists have determined that the milkweed of that 
locality is A. galioides, not A. subulata. 
