Whorled Milkweed 
23 
Fig. 17 — Stock will eat down everything but milkweed. 
to the ground. This is well shown in Figure 17. Note that the 
grass is eaten down while milkweed is shedding seed. The writ- 
er has seen an animal get a mouthful of this plant by mistake, 
and then drop it immediately. At other times cattle have been 
observed to go through a thick milkweed patch and pick out a 
few stray spears of grass without taking any of the milkweed. 
Roadways along which cattle and horses are being grazed daily 
will show patches of milkweed in blossom and pod while every 
other bit of forage is eaten off even with the ground surface. It 
is very obvious then, that the only conditions under which pois- 
oning from this plant may occur are those where the stock are 
very hungry and there is an absolute lack of other feed. The 
one possible exception to this rule is when the milkweed occurs 
in alfalfa hay and the stock get it along with the alfalfa. Even 
then animals are likely to nose out the milkweed unless they are 
very hungry and are eating greedily. 
The following conditions are common ones under which 
losses have occurred : 
1. Along driveways where other forage has been eaten off 
and the stock have come onto a large milkweed patch after hav- 
ing been driven a considerable distance. This was the condition 
