In many parts of the world when some epidemic or some other demic runs through a herd of cattle, it is the fashion to try to put the trouble on some plant which the cattle are supposed to have last eaten, and thus many an innocent plant gets a bad name. A sort of Astragalus, a legume, is accused in Texas of being a "loco," another kind has such a reputation; in New Mexico and California some other species bears the brunt. Possibly they may be poisonous, possibly not. Possibly there may be nothing in the following, but it is well to keep up with the knowledge of what people say about things. This is from the Texas Panhandle:

"One of the many satisfactory features in the ranges at present is the dying of the uncalled for (mildly speaking) loco weed. It is held by some that this mysterious plant dies out generally over the range every seven years. However that may be, reports from nearly all parts say that it is dying out now, and that places where it was thick a short time since are virtually free from it. It is doing this without any apparent cause, alongside of growing winter grasses and other vegetation that is in a flourishing condition. Where the sudden and ridiculous loco flourishes one year, there may be none the next, and vice versa. It springs up and flourishes in a locality, or dies out seemingly without regard to causes or conditions".