284 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
of my friends have done so with like results. My foreman tells me that his father, 
as an experiment, shut up some hogs and sheep in a pen in July, and gave them no 
food or water for six weeks except what they derived from the scorched pear leaves, 
and that they greatiy improved in flesh during the time. About sixteen months 
ago (April, 1885) Iasked the pastor of 3,000 sheep grazing on some of my land when 
he watered his sheep. He replied that he gave them no water except what they 
got from the pear, and that they had not seen water since the previous October, 
for six months, at shearing time. I have since verified his statement, and it is 
well known that sheep and cattle can subsist indefinitely upon the pear in the 
winter months. During the severe drought of last winter and the previous one 
many thousands of cattle were fed upon the scorched pear leaves, but it was the 
universal experience that it was necessary to give some species of ‘‘ roughness ” with 
it: that if fed alone it would not be assimilated, and would cause ‘‘ scouring” or diar- 
rhea. On the Nueces River, below my ranch, thousands of trees covered with Spanish 
moss were cut down for the moss asa food for the cattle in conjunction with the 
scorched pear leaves. The moss is not regarded as possessing much nutritive value, 
but rather as the diluent and bond of union to the pear, to enable the animal to prop- 
erly ruminate it. Colonel Miller, member of Congress from Gonzales district of 
Texas, who owns the finest herd of Holstein cattle in the State, tells me that he has 
fed his entire Holstein herd of about 80 head for the past five years on the leaves of 
the Prickly Pear thoroughly cooked with cotton-seed. He covers the bottom of a 
large sheet-iron box with the scorched and chopped pear leaves, filling it about two- 
thirds full of pear, then fills the box with cotton-seed, throws a few bucketsful of 
water into the box, builds a fire under it, and cooks the cotton-seed with the steam 
which arises. He assures me that his cattle keep fat all winter upon a small pasture 
which could not otherwise support them. Judge Blackburn, of Burnett, Tex., gives 
me substantially the same statement, from feeding it toa herd of imported cattle. 
The Dolores Land and Cattle Company, composed of my brother, W. S. Carothers, 
and my cousin, G. A. Searight, of Austin, have fed it for the last three years to some 
three or four cay-ioads of Hereford cattle which they have brought to Texas from 
lowa, and find it a valuable food, and also believe it to be almost a specific in the pre- 
vention of the impaction of the third stomach and hemo-albuminuria, called Texas 
fever, from which animals brought from the North are apt to suffer. I imported 
41 head of Hereford bulls last January, and found the cooked pear of great utility 
in preventing the same trouble. Icould multiply instances of its supposed utility, 
but these are the principal oaes that have come under my direct observation. 
My conclusions are: (1) That it isnot a perfect food. It must be supplemented or 
complemented with other articles, especially with hay or grass. (2) That while 
your chemist found no starch present, he found the metamorphic stage of starch, 
glucose, which is most readily assimilable in the stomach of all animals, and the 
condition to which starch must be reduced by the action of the salivary and pan- 
creatic secretions before it can be assimilated. (3) That it is deficient in the nitro- 
genized albuminoids, contrary to my preconceived opinion. (4) That whatever its 
food value may be, it undoubtedly aids in the assimilation of more highly nutritious 
foods, possibly by some catalytic action or by emulsifying the fats that they con- 
tain. Colonel Miller is very positive in his conclusions upon this point. Gum and 
glucose make a perfect emulsion with all fats. 
The presence of the ‘‘ glucoside body ” explains two facts that have lately come to 
my knowledge: (1) That a neighbor of mine, a Frenchman, has succeeded in making 
a palatable and intoxicating wine from the fruit of this cactus. (2) That alcohol has 
been distilled by a chemist in San Antonio from the bruised and fermented leaves 
of this plant to such a degree that it has been discussed as a possible source of alco- 
hol. There are several points upon which scientific information, such as you can 
give, would be of great value to Texans. 
First. The substances with which this cactus can be combined to make it a per- 
fect food for the purpose of fattening beef. We have available in our section the 
following articles: 
(a) Mesquite grass (Buchloé unioloides). 
(b) Grama grass (Bouteloua oligostachya). 
(ec) Johnson grass (Sorghum halapense). 
(d) Sorghum—saccharatum and other varieties. 
(e) Cotton-seed oil meal. 
(f) Corn-meal, 
(g) Our pasture grasses, annuals, as the varieties of Andropogon, Paspalum, and 
Panicum, especially P. texanum. 
Now, if we can make a combination of the above enumerated articles and the 
Prickly Pear, we can mature our beef on our own ranges. I send specimens as fol- 
lows: 
No. 1. A leaf of last year’s growth. 
