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285 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
S. Department of Agriculture. The experience of nine or ten ob- 
servers has been varied. It is fed especially in winter, cattle, 
sheep, hogs, and goats living upon it. At times it is fed as found 
upon the range, but difficulties, as Dr. Carothers remarks, have been 
met with by most cattlemen on account of the spines and with their 
removal by burning and the consequent purging, although others 
have never experienced the latter defect. As a whole, however, the 
success met with in its use has been marked, and as it grows in such 
large amounts and so readily in those portions of the country where 
corn can not be obtained, it must become of considerable value. 
With a view to throw some light upon its rational use as a forage 
plant, its analysis was undertaken for Mr. Dull and carried rather 
further, for the purpose of comparing it with Dasylirion and Agave, 
and as being a representative of a class of plants of which little is 
known. 
' The results obtained from an ordinary fodder analysis of two spec- 
imens of the Cacanapo or thin-leaved Prickly Pear, probably Opuntia 
tuna, from Waugh’s Ranch, La Salle County, Tex., was as follows: 
—— ——.- ee 
Old thick specimen. | Young thin specimen. 
\ = 
| H 
| Fresh, Dry. Fresh. } Dry. 
| 
| 
ee ee Mad aT PN ME TOT Reps Bae eee ee... 66,88 |:7.: aan 
JN gdh Las See pass aan ee oe eS ee ee Re a | 2.94 20.84 | 2.40 | 18. 36 
EN Ha od Snook SoS o TEE tte Heenan 13 .98 Bath 82 
(CMTCTET 02 pe ra ee eco LT ane ee eee ee | .90 6.37 | Sa) 4.04 
PANG eee tote ceo ea tae cae cha rce teen cat oe | asi 3. 63 . 78 5.91 
Mibnoren-[hes GxtraGbht sci. cco Wee ck ln. ls ba Ue | 9.59 68.18 | 9. 80 70. 87 
100. 00 100. 00 100. 00 100, 00 
Per cent. of N. as non-albuminoid .................... ie aa ne BOO | ae eens 22.6 
J 
As has been remarked, it is deficient in nitrogen, and should be 
fed together with cotton-seed meal and the grasses which fortunately 
are common and cheap in the country where the Opuntia grows, and 
supplies the deficiency in oil and albuminoids. 
With the view of determining the proximate principlés of the 
plant, and discovering the character of the non-nitrogenous extract 
and the causes of purging in the roasted specimens, a more thorough 
analysis was undertaken. A microscopic examination showed that 
thestructure of the joints consisted of an outer, thin cuticle, growin 
thicker in older specimens, followed by a row of round, longitudina 
cells running lengthwise of the joints, and then a row of shorter 
cells running crosswise, delicate in the young plants, but quite woody 
in the older ones. Below these there is a series of long, round cells 
running through the joints till the parenchyma, which forms the 
main body, is reached. Through the latter run fibro-vascular bun- 
dles, and near its juncture with the outer coats are scattered starch 
grains. The largest portion of the nitrogenous substance is in the 
fibro-vascular bundles, which form the frame-work of the plant, 
and probably give, with the outer coats, the fibor mentioned in the 
analysis. The cellular structure of the interior is small and delicate. 
The joints weighed— 
Grams. 
Ojdrand’ thick. spectuiens’. ay oy Cee ab 2 LS ove eal sl tals ge hoe 73 
Youusand thin speéeiinens) 00.).. ited esl. ed bed de od key ebek see eee aeg GOO 
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