lo Dec, 1909.] Tlic Prickly Pear. 765 



the Arizona Agricultural Exjx-riment Station, where Professor Thornber 

 and others have de\oted much time and study to the question. This 

 Station is planting out the pear on the Ranges as a stock food. All the 

 Bulletins can be obtained at a small charge by application to the institu- 

 tions named. 



The result of the inquiries I personally made have been embodied in 

 a report by ntyself, issued by command of the Federal Parliament in July 

 last. This report can be obtained by those interested through the Federal 

 member for their district, or by application to the Secretary for External 

 Aftairs. There is no charge. The summary of the investigations and 

 experiments made, show that this plant, formerly considered a pest, has 

 been proved to be most useful as an emergency feed in time of drought, 

 and has saved flocks and herds frora destruction many times. It has also 

 prevented the loss of the rancher's capital, the accumulation of a hard-spent 

 life, in msany instances. But not only has it proved an emergency feed, 

 but has also been found, in conjunction with some kind of concentrated 

 food, of use as a regular feed for cattle, sheep, and pigs. By singeing 

 the spines off with a gasoline torch, the plant, which pre\'iously the stock 

 would not touch, is made at once available for food, either bv cutting it 

 in pieces and feeding to the stock, or allowing tliem to feed on it standing 

 on the range. Steaming was also done, but since the Gasoline Pear Burner 

 came into use in 1898 burning off is mostly practised. The u.e of the 

 pear increases the flow of milk in dairy cattle, and in many towns in Texas 

 it is fed regularly, while Mexican families depend upon it for their cows 

 as a mainsta}-. It has not a great feeding value, but is esteemed for its 

 succulence. It is fed together with cotton seed meal, or brewer's grains, 

 or bran, or other concentrated food, and if a properly balanced ration 

 is used the milk yield is equal to what it is from grass. A gentleman in 

 Adelaide, whom I do not personally know, advised me that, seeing in the 

 paper my account of this plant, and having a paddock of 15 acres near 

 him, on which were patches of Prickly Pear, he cut some down. Cutting 

 off the spines with a pair of strong curved shears he chopped the leaves 

 in pieces and fed it to his cow with some chaff ; the feed bin held from 

 two to three kerosene tinsfull, and he writes " It is really wonderful how 

 well during the last eight or ten days that my cow has been given this 

 food the extra quantity and quality of the milk have improved." It has 

 also been fed to sheep and goats, and in some parts of Texas and Mexico 

 to a great extent to the working cattle. A full ration of pear scours 

 animals, especially al first, but balancing ihe ration as before stated, or 

 even with sorghum, hay, or dry grass, modifies that condition. 



So great has been the change of opinion in regard to this plant in 

 Texas, that while some vears ago the Legislature was considering the 

 passing of an Act to compel its eradication, the Department of Agriculture 

 of the United States, issued on 19th February. 1908, Bulletin No. 124 

 on " The Prickly Pear as a Farm Crop " with instructions as to its 

 cultivation and utilization. And this is not the "spineless" but the 

 " Prickly " Pear. Cities in Texas have been cleared for 8 miles round 

 of this plant for food, and dairymien and others now have to purchase it. 



I could write much more, but consideration for your space compels 

 me to stop. I trust I have stated enough to show that this question of the 

 utilization of the cacti for a dry country like Australia cannot be brushed 

 contemptuously aside, but must have the consideration of those who are 

 respon.sible for the utilization of our extensive arid regions. I have by 

 no means exhausted my facts, in fact. Iiave merely touched upon them, 

 and can return to the subject again if it is necessary to do so. 

 Bendigo, nth October, 1909. 



