May 3, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 325 



Chats about the Prickly Pear* 



No. 3. 



J. H. MAIDEN, I.S.O., F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 Government Botanist and Director, Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



Prickly Pear as Stock Food. 

 This is pear's major use, beside which all others sink into insignificance. T 

 repeat the advice that, while we are searching out some insect or fungus 

 antagonist which may help us to cope with this dreadful weed, we should be 

 careful that we do not lose valuable time for the sake of what may turn 

 out to be a will-o'-the-wisp. 



Synopsis. 



Absolute Destruction only an Ideal. 



Helect Bibliography. 



Burning ofi" the Spines and Spinules. (1) Singeing with Brush. 



(2) Singeing with a Torch. 

 Handling the Pear ; a Fork. 

 Chopping the Pear. 

 Steaming Pear. 

 Pear as Ensilage. 



Absolute Destruction only an Ideal. 



With most people in Australia absolute destruction of prickly pear is' an 

 ideal. If the matter came into politics, the candidate who could px-omise 

 elimination of the plant would receive an almost unanimous Australian 

 vote ; not ti[uite unanimous, however, for I have found, particularly 

 during the present drought, that some landowners who were severely antag- 

 onistic to it during the drought of 190"^ have becotiiC more tolerant of it 

 during the drought of 1919. A number have told me they could not carry 

 through a drought without pear, although most say they have too much. 



Following is the opinion of a high American authority, Dr. D. Griffiths, 



in U.S. Bulletin 74, p. 36, referring to his own country : — 



It has been but a few years since the ranchers in the pear sections of Texas were 

 inquiring anxiously for some method which could be successfully employed in ridding 

 the native pastures, of wliat was considered an absolutelj' worthless and injurious 

 weed — the prickly pear. It was asserted that the pear, like the mesquite {Prosopis 

 glandulosa) a.nd guajilla {Acacia Ber/andicri), was spreading rapidly and would soon 

 overrun and greatly injure, if not destroy, large areas of pasture land. But this was 

 before the combination of pear and cotton-seed meal as a stock feed was appreciated. 

 To-day the occasion for the destruction of the pear does not exist, and an absolute 

 ■destruction would be a calamity indeed . 



The foregoing notwithstanding, there is hardly anyone who would not 

 welcome any means by which the pest might be cleared out of the land, and 

 who indeed would not admit that that would be a desirable termination 



