164 ItlE PLANT WORLD. 



posed. A ministt-r in Topeka, Kansas, has several hnndred spe- 

 cies of Kansas wild flowers, all growing and thriving within the 

 limits of an ordinary city lot. 



Finallv, we may fall back with almost absolute assurance of 

 success, if we but do our part, upon that institution which more 

 than any other controls our nation's destiu}- — the public school. 

 Children do not need to be taught to love flowers. Why not 

 make a part of every school yard throughout our beautiful prairie 

 regions a wild flower garden ? By so doing we will not only be 

 preserving the beautiful in nature, we will be storing little minds 

 with beautiful impressions. Long years afterward when the 

 skies grow dark over the sea of life, these recollections of a happy 

 childhood will return, bright " angels of the memory "" to guard 

 and guide aright. 



Singed Cacti as Forage. — During the periods of prolonged 

 drouth, to which the southwestern United States is liable, range 

 cattle frecjuently browse upon various species of cacti common 

 to the region. At the Arizona Experiment Station, Mr. J. J. 

 Thornber has carried on experiments regarding the utility of this 

 class of forage plants, particularly after the spines have been re- 

 moved by burning by means of a prickly-pear burner — that is, a 

 gasoline torch similar in principle to that which plumbers use. 

 The spines of about 300 plants of the species of cacti commonly 

 found in the neighborhood of the station, including prickly pears, 

 chollas, etc., were singed, the spines being burned off at intervals 

 for about ten days. The first fifty plants that were singed were 

 literally devoured by the stock, the prickly pears being eaten nearl}- 

 to the level of the ground, while only the trunks and woody 

 branches of the chollas remained. As the work was continued 

 from day to day, it was evident that the stock (although under 

 usual circumstances they will eat more or less of the cactus with 

 the spines) were feeding entirely upon the singed plants, and 

 that thev readily distinguished them from the unsinged ones. This 

 singeing and close browsing of the cactaceous plants, if continued, 

 would surely result in their final destruction, which would add 

 more distress to what already exists, so that in general not more 

 than one-half of the plant should be singed, leaving the remaining 

 half to restore the growth singed and utilized by cattle. 



