456 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



they used only the heart of the plant taken just when the flower stalk 

 was pushing up. The trunks were trimmed and placed in the pits, 

 where they were treated exactly like the mescal. This product must 

 be far less suitable for food, for the steins are hard and woody and only 

 the youngest parts can be easily rendered edible. Sotol has been 

 used in the manufacture of alcohol in a commercial way, the sugars 

 contained in the stems being readily fermentable. With this as a 

 basis reports have been issued of the distillation of alcohol from 

 cactus, but the sugars contained in the different cactuses have so far 

 not proved susceptible of fermentation. All plants that have spines 

 are popularly known as cactus in the Southwest and here may be 

 found the probable source of this erroneous report. 



Sotol has proved its utility as feed for stock, especially when con- 

 tinued drought has caused a scarcity of grass. Cattle if starved can 

 eat the plants as they stand in the field but are likely to be injured 

 by the sharp edges of the leaves. When the plants are cut in two, so 

 as to expose their interior, they are greedily consumed. One cattle- 

 man in the southern part of the State, while fattening cattle for 

 market, had several carloads of sotol shipped in for feed and used it 

 with profitable results. The plants are very abundant in some 

 localities, closely covering broad slopes along the foothills. 



New Mexico is not bountifully provided with wild fruits, but there 

 is a considerable number of native ones, some of which are not par- 

 ticularly palatable but can be eaten. The number that are really 

 useful is small compared with those found in the Central and Eastern 

 States. 



The most valuable of all, certainly the most delicious and most 

 frequently gathered, is the red raspberry (Rubus strigosus) which is 

 exactly like the plant that bears the same name farther east. Seldom 

 does it grow so luxuriantly as in some localities in New Mexico, where 

 it forms thick patches, often several acres in extent, in the broad 

 open valleys in the higher mountains. Its well flavored fruit is borne 

 in profusion and is often gathered in quantity when accessible. It is 

 a favorite food of bears and many of them frequent the berry patches 

 when the fruit is ripe. A near relative is the thimbleberry (Rubacer 

 parviflorus) which also produces a red fruit like the raspberry, but 

 unfortunately the plants are low, never more than 1 or 2 feet high, 

 and each bears but few fruits, so that gathering the berries is a tedious 

 task. Strawberries of excellent quality are found in most of the 

 mountain ranges, sometimes in sufficient abundance to be gathered 

 for the table. In the ranges between Santa Fe and Las Vegas and 

 northward a blueberry (Vaccinium oreophilum) is common. It grows 

 in sandy soil high up among the spruces, a low shrub rarely more 

 than a foot high, loaded with small wine-colored berries which are 

 often picked and eaten. On the Plains along the eastern border of 



