410 Agricultural Gazette ofN.S.W, [Jmip 2, 1920. 



Queensland Experience.* 



In the Sydney Mail of 9th August, 1 902, is a picture of cattle from- 

 Womblebank Station (Queensland) fattened on prickly pear. It is stated 

 that " these bullocks settled down on the prickly pear country about two 

 years iigo, when the drought was beginning to be felt very severely, and have 

 existed entirely on the pear in its i-aw state ever since, and with hundreds 

 of others have done remarkably well upon the fodder." The Womblebank 

 cattle are a credit to their owner, but I must be excused if I decline to 

 believe that they got their fine bony framework (not to speak of their muscular 

 tissue) from prickly pear. No analysis that I have ever seen shows phosphates 

 in these plants sufficient for the building up of a fat bullock. Water, of course, 

 they can do without, for prickly pear contains about 90 per cent, of that 

 useful beverage. The late Mr. Dowling, the editor of the Mail, brought Mr. 

 W. J. King, the manager of Womblebank, to my office for a chat. Mr. 

 King had brought these bullocks from Roma to Sydney. He informed me 

 that the bullocks got pickings of grass, saltbush and scrub, both on Womble- 

 bank and on the way down to Sydney. 



There arose a furious controversy, some of which will be found in the 

 Sydney Stock and Station Journal at the time, about these Womblebank 

 bullocks and prickly pear. 



Mr. R. S. Archer, the Manager of Gracemere, near Rockbampton, cele- 

 brated for its dairy farm, wrote undur date 25th November, 1902 : — 



The dairyman [i.e., certain dairymen who had spoken disparagingly of prickly pear. — 

 J.H.M.] must have struck a bad sort of pear or cannot have treated it properly, as we 

 must have used 1,500 tons at least this season, and by its use kept 500 milkers alive and 

 our business together, as, without it, we couldn't have faced buying chaff at £10 a ton. 

 The pear has on an average cost us 7s. 6d. per ton to cut, prepare and feed — say 1,500 

 tons, £5r>2 10s. Fifteen hundred tons of pear equals 500 tons of chaff at £10 — £5,000 ; 

 say, a saving of £4,437 10s. 



• Since the above was written I have seen for the first time (10th May, 1920) a valuable 

 bulletin for stock owners, dated Ist May, 1918, and issued by the Prickly Pear Board 

 of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. The Board consisted of 

 Messrs. Cory, Brunnich, Graham and Quodling. Had I seen this bulletin before I would 

 have referred to it in its place. It is based on experiments made by Mr. Frank Smith, 

 B.Sc, formerly Assistant Chemist to the Department, and the bulletin itself i» 

 described as a practical one, as setting out clearly and concisely, and in a non-technical 

 manner, the results of trials conducted at Wallumbilla, Maranoa district, Queensland^ 

 of prickly pear as stock feed, and as touching the existent value of the plant and its 

 possible utility for feeding purposes. Inter alia, the writer says : — 



" In revising the question of applying data secured in stall-feeding to the case of 

 beasts running at large in pear country, it may be pointed out that where the elemental 

 conditions are the same the results will be parallel and variant only in degree, also the 

 possible superior benefit to animals through individual selection of feed was the subject 

 of trial, and is estimated. The directions given for the preparation of prickly pear for 

 farm stock are recommended, as the rations embodying it — prescribed for various 

 purposes — were based upon experiments conducted with an adecjuate number of animals 

 and over considerable periods. 



" More especially would attention be drawn to the value of tlie plant as a standby for 

 stock in drouffht. Its use, in conjunction with other foods, intelligently fed to stock, 

 with appreciation of deficiencies of pear as a fodder, should assist in diminishing the 

 disastrous losses hilherto sustained by stock-owners." i 



There is a valuable summary at page 21, and there are illustrations of the effect of 

 pear-feeding on both cattle and sheep. I believe it to be the most valuable publication 

 of its kind that has appeared in Australia so far.— J.H.M. 



